Hospitals in Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Ohio faced an influx of patients suffering fatal overdoses Saturday, according to a public warning issued by the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition.

The alert was in response to 23 overdoses occurred between the hours of 6 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday.

Be warned, Heroin is deadly. We have already responded to nearly 20 overdose incidents since midnight. pic.twitter.com/yA5SUJ2yFQ — Cincy Fire & EMS (@CincyFireEMS) June 22, 2019

The Cincinnati Fire Department tweeted the alert Sunday. Despite stating an unknown cause, the alert attributed the spike in overdoses to a potential bad mix of heroin with other illicit synthetic street drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanyl. Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan attributed the surge to fentanyl. According to a Cincinnati Enquirer report, Hamilton county saw 11 overdoses linked to fentanyl mixtures late last month.

Ohio has been ground zero for the opioid epidemic in the U.S. Last month, Sara A. Carter testified before the Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee, where she urged lawmakers to support concurrent House Resolution Bill 10. The resolution recently passed which will encourage the federal government to designate a major supplier and distributor of opioids in the U.S., the Mexican drug cartels, Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).

Sara A. Carter also produced a documentary “Not in Vein” to showcase the dangers of the opioid and heroin epidemic that is claiming nearly 130 American lives each day. Click here to watch.

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