Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College reported a fatality on its campus Monday that appears to have been caused by an opioid overdose.

The Asheville Police Department was called to the scene to investigate.

A-B Tech President Dennis King emailed a statement to current students on Wednesday notifying them of the fatality on campus.

"It's with a heavy heart that I inform you of a student death on campus Monday afternoon in the Balsam building," the email reads. "We are not releasing the student’s name at this time since the family is still notifying people and making memorial arrangements, but they have given us permission to share that the death was due to a suspected overdose from opioids. The student’s mother expressed the desire that any student with a similar problem learn from this tragedy and seek immediate help."

King then urged students to look out for one another and to contact the campus' Student Support Services (at 398-7141) if witnessing the signs and symptoms of opioid addictions in their peers.

"We want to assure that every student is safe, healthy and able to complete your education," King wrote. "Please keep this student and the family in your thoughts and prayers."

Earlier this year, the Citizen-Times reported that opioid use is on the rise both locally and nationally. In 2016, Mission Hospital treated nearly 3,000 people for opioid-related problems, compared with the 1,611 patients it treated for the same problem in 2012.

Most opioid overuse and abuse, however, isn't in the form of street drugs. It comes in the form of legal prescriptions used to treat pain for oral surgery, broken bones, chronic pain, terminal illness and other trauma.

“Deaths from opioids and heroin now surpass deaths from car wrecks, homicide or suicide in this country,” said Dr. Blake Fagan, assistant director of the MAHEC Family Medicine Residency Program and MAHEC's chief education officer. “It is a national and local crisis.”