Local officials are calling it a public health emergency.
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The state reported Thursday that accidental drug overdoses killed an average of eight people per day in OH past year.
But Huntington isn’t the only community grappling with a wave of overdoses and overdose deaths: There were 78 overdoses reported in Cincinnati, Ohio, in just 48 hours, 15 people overdosed, one of them fatal, in Jennings County, Indiana, on August 23. “We want to be tough, but in a different way – we want to be tough on the people who are addicted to the money”, selling drugs that ruin lives and destroy families, he said.
The spikes in overdoses might be much worse without naloxone, a now widely available overdose antidote that many first responders such as firefighters carry.
One person died in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, following a series of 12 heroin overdoses within hours of each other on Wednesday.
In Huntington, West Virginia, an OH man was charged with heroin distribution in connection with 27 drug overdoses in a few hours last week, a federal prosecutor said Friday. He made an initial appearance Thursday before a USA magistrate judge in the Northern District of Ohio.
County leaders on Thursday said they’ll seek funding for treatment that would come with expanded response teams.
“It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before”, said Hamilton County Commissioner Dennis Deters.
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Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black added that authorities suspect the heroin has been mixed with another drug.
