COLUMBUS, Ohio – The number of Ohioans who died from unintentional drug overdoses declined by 22.7% in 2018 -- the first decrease since 2009 and a possible sign the worst of the opioid epidemic may be over, according to an Ohio Department of Health report.

“These are the most encouraging (numbers) we’ve had in 11 years,” said Dr. Mark Hurst, the Ohio Department of Health’s medical director, a physician who is board-certified in psychiatry and addiction psychiatry.

In 2009, 1,423 Ohioans died of drug overdoses. The number increased each year throughout the decade, peaking in 2017 -- when 4,854 died.

Nevertheless, 3,764 Ohioans died – over 10 people a day – heartbreaking figures for people who lost loved ones.

“It tells us our work is far from done,” Hurst said. “It tells us we can’t take our foot off the gas.”

Northeast Ohio overdose deaths dropped from 2017 to 2018, following statewide trends:

Cuyahoga County: 443 unintentional overdose deaths in 2018, down from 598 in 2017

Lorain County: 101 in 2018, down from 133 in 2017

Medina County: 35 in 2018, down from 42.

Summit County: 128, down from 239

Portage County: 28, down from 39

Lake County: 71, down from 91

Geauga County: 12, down from 25

Statewide, unintentional overdose deaths began to decrease from the second quarter of 2017 to the first half of 2018. But then there was an increase in the third quarter of 2018. Deaths began to decrease again in the fourth quarter of the year, the report states.

The role of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, continues to be a dominant factor in the Ohio overdose deaths: 72.6% of the 2018 deaths involved illegal fentanyl or fentanyl analogs, which are drugs with a similar chemical structure. Fentanyl was often present in combination with other drugs.

Deaths involving natural and “semisynthetic” opioids -- such as oxycodone, which goes by several brand names including Oxycontin, and hydrocodone, which goes by brands such as Lortab and Vicodin -- decreased 42% from 2017 to 2018, the health department stated.

Hurst said that the department keeps an eye on prescription opioid overdose deaths and the number of scrips doctors write for opioids. There is a direct correlation between prescriptions and prescription overdose deaths, which peaked in 2013 and have been on the decrease each year since.

“There’s still too many prescription deaths,” he said. “The prescription drugs are the gateway to illicit drugs like heroin and fentanyl.”

Fentanyl is showing up increasingly in cocaine and methamphetamine, Hurst said. People who have used cocaine and meth in the past may not be able to survive small amounts of fentanyl that they didn’t know was cut into their drugs.

For the second year, black non-Hispanic men had the highest drug overdose death rates compared to other sex and race/ethnicity groups. Prior to 2017, the last time the demographic had the highest overdose death rate was in 2008.

Black, non-Hispanic women, on the other hand, had the lowest overdose death rates.