Starting that same day and spilling over into Wednesday, police in Hamilton County, Ohio, got more than 50 overdose calls from bathrooms, fast food restaurants, a vehicle crash and a parking lot.
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Cincinnati Enquirer Reporter Terry DiMeo says officials believe the batch of heroin was cut with fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin.
Fentanyl caused more than a third of the record number of unintentional drug overdose deaths that occurred past year in OH, according to a new report from the state’s Department of Health.
Law enforcement officials suspect theheroin was laced with fentanyl, or possibly carfentanil, an elephant tranquilizer that’s 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.
Accidental drug overdoses killed more than 3,000 people in OH in 2015.
“There were 81 million fewer opioid doses dispensed to OH patients since the state took initiatives to curb opiates, and the number of people who try to get controlled substances from multiple doctors has dramatically decreased”, DiOrio said.
“Over one-third of those deaths “ 1,155 “ were fentanyl-related, which more than doubled from the previous year and increased from just 75 in 2012.
Cincinnati saw a spike in overdoses over the weekend when the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition reported more than 30 overdoses Monday, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. A city spokesperson said the cost of Narcan is split between grant money and taxpayer money, and says that the cost has increased over the years from $15 a dose. The agency notes that patients who overdose on the drug can be treated with naloxone but they may require a higher dose to effectively reverse the overdose.
“People overwhelmingly want help”, she said. Officials have little doubt that the carfentanil that’s showing up in street drugs is from overseas, just as fentanyl is manufactured and brought across the US borders.
Experts said that mixing fentanyl and carfentanil with heroin could make the users a more intense high.
There’s no way to be sure yet what drug caused the overdoses, but lab work is being done, according to health officials.
A typical day sees four overdoses in the entire city, police said.
State officials said their strategies to tackle the problem during the next year include working with lawmakers to stiffen penalties for illicit fentanyl sales and to make it easier to establish opiate treatment programs. “It looked like he was overdosed on drugs”.
Ohio’s rate was the fifth highest at 24.6 deaths, and Kentucky, which borders OH and IN, was the fourth highest at 24.7 deaths.
“If a batch of drug, whatever it is – bad heroin, carfentanil, whatever – comes in and is distributed and consumed so quickly, how do you trace that?”
One Evansville man blogged before he overdosed on heroin last week.
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Investigators are still trying to identify the supplier and find out where the heroin originated from, prior to hitting the streets in Cincinnati.
