Overdose deaths in 2016 hit 4,329

Drug overdoses killed 4,329 Ohioans in 2016, the second-highest death rate in the nation.

That’s up 24 percent over the 3,310 drug deaths the previous year, according to a report released Thursday by the federal government, and slightly higher than the 4,149 reported by The Dispatch last spring based on data compiled from county coroners.

Despite increased government spending, Ohio’s rate of drugoverdose deaths, 39.1 per 100,000 people, trailed only West Virginia’s 52 per 100,000 population.

The powerful and deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl is largely to blame for the exploding number of deaths, according to data compiled by the National Centers for Health Statistics.

Sadly, those on the front lines of Ohio’s drug epidemic say they are not surprised by the spike.

“We’ve got a big problem in Ohio,” said Dublin Police Chief Heinz von Eckartsberg.

First responders in Dublin had to use two doses of the drug antidote naloxone to revive a 20-year-old man earlier this week and 11 doses to revive another man last month, suggesting they’d taken fentanyl.

Statewide, emergency responders have administered more than 43,000 doses of naloxone this year, up from 31,800 in all of 2016.

“Fentanyl is powerful and more intense,” the chief said. “People are putting stuff in their veins that’s going to kill them.”

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said that in addition to being powerful, fentanyl is deadly for another reason.

“They’re taking a concoction that they don’t know what’s in it,” he said, explaining that fentanyl often is mixed with heroin, cocaine and other drugs.

Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika W. Roberts said the rising death toll is “frustrating,” adding that without naloxone — now widely used by first responders and addicts themselves — fatal overdoses would be much higher.

“It’s a complex problem. There is no easy fix,” she said. “It will take prevention and education, treatment, a comprehensive approach.”

Disturbing as the numbers for 2016 are, signs point to an evenhigher Ohio death toll in 2017.

Data for Franklin County overdose deaths through the first nine months of 2017 — 383 — exceed the total for all of 2016, when drugs killed 353, according to Coroner Anahi Ortiz.

The number of fentanyl-related deaths through the first three quarters of 2017 was 230, compared with 144 for all of 2016, Anahi said.

State Rep. Ryan Smith, a Bidwell Republican who is among those behind state efforts to direct more spending and legislation at Ohio’s drug crisis, said the federal numbers just confirm the extent of the epidemic.

They also underscore how more-addictive drugs like fentanyl are complicating efforts to combat the problem.

“We started with prescription drugs, and every time we make some progress,” there’s a new problem to address, Smith said.

Nationally, there were 63,632 drug deaths in 2016, nearly 20 per 100,000 people. That was 21 percent higher than the rate in 2015, when 52,404 died, the federal report found.

As local coroners and first responders have warned, deaths from synthetic opioids, most notably fentanyl, doubled between 2015 and 2016. Meanwhile, deaths from prescription opioids, like oxycodone, continue to increase but at a much slower rate.

Drug-overdose death rates increased between 2015 and 2016 among all age groups, with the largest jump — 29 percent — among those ages 25-34. The smallest increase was 7 percent for those age 65 or over.

Death rates among men and women were both up, although men died of drug overdoses at double the rate of women.

Following West Virginia and Ohio with the highest drug-overdose death rates in 2016 were New Hampshire (39 per 100,000), the District of Columbia (38.8) and Pennsylvania (37.9).

The five states with the lowest rates were Iowa (10.6), North Dakota (10.6), Texas (10.1), South Dakota (8.4) and Nebraska (6.4).

Tracy Plouck, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said preventing people from using drugs for the first time is key to reducing overdose deaths.

“Be educated — getting rid of unused pills is good start,” said von Eckartsberg, adding that pills have been stolen from bathroom medicine cabinets during parties and open houses.

“We need people to understand it’s a problem all over Ohio, and we have to try and get people into treatment,” he added. “We can’t just put people into jail.”

Ohio Public Safety Director John Born said law enforcement has its best picture yet of how drugs are coming into Ohio and where they are going, leading to increased seizures of fentanyl.

“Now it’s coming mostly across the Mexican border,” he said. “It’s deadly and profitable. One kilo of pure fentanyl will kill more than 300,000 people.”

That’s why it’s important to focus on prevention on the front end, DeWiine said.

“We’re not doing enough of this,” he said.