South Carolina’s Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services Director Sara Goldsby and Governor Henry McMaster announced their collaborative partnership with three South Carolina universities to fight the opioid epidemic across the state. 

The plan comes as a reaction to the evolving addiction crisis that is affecting communities throughout South Carolina, includes three state research universities and aims to dramatically improve South Carolina’s ability to identify and treat citizens suffering from addiction, according to a press release from the governor’s office. 

The three universities, Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina, have partnered with DAODAS and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to form an alliance, coined as the “S.C. Center of Excellence in Addiction” and is legitimized by a Memorandum of Understanding. 

“Governor McMaster frequently asks us to act boldly, and to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate in our work,” Goldsby said in the press release. By doing just that, and by leveraging the expertise from our state agencies and research universities, we have the unique asset of centralized support for addiction efforts statewide.

With aid from the two state agencies, the three colleges will work to investigate the opioid crisis in South Carolina. 

“University researchers, with technical and administrative assistance from the two state agencies, will initially work together to utilize available data in an effort to better understand how the state is performing in three key areas: identifying individuals with substance use disorders, treatment of those who have been identified, and retaining those currently in treatment,” according to the press release. 

Clemson is eager to be a part of working towards a solution to South Carolina’s opioid epidemic. 

“We are excited to work closely with key stakeholders and organizations to implement proven models of addiction care, and to develop new models to transform addiction care across South Carolina,” Dr. Alain Litwin of Clemson University and USC School of Medicine Greenville stated in a Dec. 29 press release. “Our ultimate goal, a collective mission with these important partners, is to eliminate all opioid-related fatal overdoses in South Carolina.”

This partnership comes as deaths due to opioid overdoses are at an unprecedented high in South Carolina. 

From 2016 to 2020, the number of drug overdose deaths caused by opioid-classified drugs rose 127%, from 616 deaths to 1,400, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s 2020 annual report. Over the same time period, fatal overdoses involving fentanyl skyrocketed from 190 deaths to 1,100, an increase of more than 475%.
“The opioid addiction problem in South Carolina is unfortunately bigger than any one agency or institution’s scope and addressing it responsibly and robustly demands the kind of multi-partner collaboration and commitment that this new Center represents,” acknowledged Dr. Ed Simmer, Director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.