Hamilton County sees 31 percent jump in OD deaths for new record

Hamilton County remains entrenched in a nationwide opioid epidemic, with 31 percent more overdose deaths in 2017 than the year before.

County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco released the annual count Tuesday, noting that the death toll was reduced by the antidote for opioid overdose, Narcan.

"The number of lives being saved is huge," Sammarco said. "There's no doubt (overdose deaths) would've been double or triple what they were without Narcan."

Most of the 529 who died from overdose had a mix including a synthetic opiate in their bloodstream. Sammarco's count included 373 opiate-related and 81 cocaine-related overdose deaths.

The main culprit, she and law enforcement officers said, is the mega-potent synthetic opiate fentanyl. The opioid reigning in drug deaths in United States and Canada is usually imprecisely made in "bucket" factories in China and shipped in through U.S. borders.

The total overdose death count of 529 compares with 403 in 2016 and 414 in 2015.

Hamilton County's crime lab was also slammed like never before in 2017, Sammarco said, with more than 30,000 drug-seizure cases.

She called it a "huge" number, with the drug-case count 2.5 times higher than "any other crime lab in Ohio."

The number of heroin submissions at the lab were down: 919 in 2017, compared to 5,002 in 2012.

Submissions of fentanyl and heroin mixed were up: 180 in 2014 (the first time fentanyl was noted) to 1,748 in 2017.

Submissions of fentanyl alone were up: 123 cases in 2014, 1,223 in 2017, the coroner said.

Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan, co-chair of interdiction for the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition, said it's important to remember that the death toll represents people, adding, "We're the ones who see the families" of those who die.

"Each time a person dies, we take that to heart," Synan said.

Commander Tom Fallon, director of the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition's law enforcement task force, said his team is tracking deaths back to drug traffickers.

"We're looking at every one of these deaths," Fallon said. He called the overdose death counts "sad" and "frightening."

Tim Reagan, agent-in-charge of the Cincinnati-based U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, called Cincinnati a "source" city, or place where heroin and fentanyl is brought to for sale. That draws in addicted people from Northern Kentucky and elsewhere. They use before they get back home, he said, making the death toll in Hamilton County even higher.

Synan said the county needs more state and federal funding to address issues such as treatment needs for those addicted and to free up jails so that traffickers can remain behind bars. Sammarco suggested that neighbors keep an eye out for their neighbors, who may be suffering and help in order to prevent addiction.

"We need the community's help," Sammarco said. "If you see something, say something."

"It is discouraging," Synan said of the latest overdose death toll. But he added: "It doesn't mean it's hopeless."

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