According to a new report released by the Ohio Department of Health, unintentional drug overdose deaths in Allen County jumped from 12 to 18 in a year, making a total of 73 deaths in the last 5 years.
"Recently, I would say within the last month, we've had a dramatic increase in overdoses of opiates, not necessarily always heroin but most of the time its heroin and the problem is now the heroin is being laced with something else."
Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic narcotic, is estimated to be 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, and almost 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. officials say it can often be found laced in the heroin drug. Ohio requested assistance from the CDC to help better understand the increase in fentanyl-related deaths.
"Maybe they've gone through some sort of detox program, when they come out, the addiction is so strong, they think they have to take the same amount. As a result, they overdose because their bodies have been reset to accept less, and then you take something that's 100 times stronger than you expect, because it's laced with fentanyl and you unknowingly end up overdosing."
"It's not a rich thing, poor thing, black thing, white thing, we are seeing it across the board with everybody, anywhere from unfortunately 16 years old all the way up to 50, 60 years old."
According to the Ohio Department of Health, in 2015 Ohio EMS personnel administered almost 20,000 doses of the opiate reversal drug, Narcan, about 7,000 more doses than 2013. The opiate reversal drug Narcan has been vital to saving lives. Ohio has increased funding to purchase Narcan for first responders through local health departments.
