COLUMBUS – The synthetic opiate fentanyl continues to fuel a drug crisis that claimed another 500 lives in Franklin County last year, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the office of Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz.
Preliminary totals indicate there were 520 drug overdose deaths in Franklin County in 2017, a 47.3 percent increase over 2016, the report said. Opiates accounted for 81 percent of the total, Ortiz said.
Fentanyl-related overdose deaths accounted for nearly two-thirds of all overdoses (see graph above) compared to 2016 when it accounted for less than half. The painkiller has been blamed for increasing U.S. fatalities in recent years as authorities focused on reducing heroin overdoses.
As county coroners around Ohio release their 2017 tallies, a trend has emerged of more deaths involving fentanyl mixed with methamphetamine or cocaine mixed with fentanyl.
U.S. authorities say illicit fentanyl made in China has flooded in while there is increased availability of meth and a rebound in cocaine. All have been contributing to the national rises in overdose deaths and are increasingly being seen in lethal mixes.
“It shows the ebb and flow of drugs,” said Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan, who’s on the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition. “They fade out and come back with dealers always trying to find ways to make it more potent, more addictive … more money.”
In Franklin County, cocaine-related overdose deaths accounted for 36 percent of all overdose deaths, slightly higher than in 2016, while meth-related overdose deaths were responsible for 4.6 percent of all overdose deaths in 2017, compared to 2 percent in 2016.
Ortiz says heroin-related overdose deaths saw a dramatic decrease in 2017, from 40.7 percent in 2016 to 16 percent last year.
Butler County coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix says meth-related deaths quadrupled last year and have soared from one in 2014 to 46 last year. Cocaine-related deaths have doubled over five years from 28 to 56 in 2017.
Hamilton County’s coroner recently reported seeing more cases of cocaine mixed with illegally manufactured fentanyl as the Cincinnati-based county’s toll jumped 31 percent over 2016 to 529 overdose deaths overall.
Preliminary numbers from Cuyahoga County showed 349 cocaine-related deaths in 2017, up from 115 in 2015, with most involving fentanyl mixes. The overall estimate for the year was 822 overdose deaths, up from 666 in 2016.
The Ohio health department, which has not released its yearly numbers for 2017 yet, reported last year that cocaine-related deaths rose 62 percent to 1,109 in 2016, with the majority involving fentanyl and related opioids.
The largest percentage of fatal overdose victims in Franklin County in 2017 were under 39 years of age, accounting for 56 percent of the total. The vast majority of them were white men: 78 percent, compared with 32 percent who were women and 20 percent who were African-American.