Eight months ago, five people in Chesterfield died of drug overdoses in just over 52 hours, and Kehoe said at least four of those were confirmed to be opioid-related.

Of the four confirmed opioid deaths, all died of fentanyl toxicity combined with another drug, Kehoe said. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be prescribed or made illegally, is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and many times more powerful than heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s become the deadliest drug in the state, killing more than 1,500 people in the past two years, according to the state medical examiner’s office. The 47 lives it claimed in Chesterfield last year were more than all other localities except the city of Richmond and Fairfax County.

“Last year, roughly 90 percent of the fatal overdoses that were investigated ... had some type of fentanyl,” Kehoe said. “That’s one of the reasons we put out the media releases, is to let people know of our concern that we are finding fentanyl in so many narcotics now.

“So somebody that’s doing cocaine needs to be aware that it may not be just cocaine. Fentanyl is being mixed with just about any narcotic you can think of.”