Ohio Drug Deaths: 10 Dead In One County Over 26 Hour Span From Opioid, Drug Overdoses

The coroner for one of Ohio’s most populated counties on Sunday reported 10 deaths from drug overdoses within 26 hours.

Dr. Anahi Ortiz, who serves as the coroner for Franklin County, Ohio, confirmed the deaths in a statement on her personal Facebook page. The first death was reported Saturday morning at 8 a.m. local time, with more rolling in until 10 a.m. Sunday morning. Ortiz said this was “an unusually high number for our county in this period of time.”

While Ortiz did not reveal the specific drugs caused the overdoses, she did caution residents about the power of fentanyl.

Fentanyl is an extremely powerful synthetic opioid that is considered 50 times stronger than heroin. It can be purchased online and can easily be mixed with cocaine, methamphetamines or black market opioids.

Ortiz recommended Franklin County residents carry naloxone should an overdose occur. Naloxone is an anti-overdose medication that can be used in emergency situations. It has been adopted by more first responders, doctors, and civilians as a means to combat the opioid crisis.

The weekend overdoses also provide a snapshot of the opioid crisis that has gripped the U.S. for nearly 20 years.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that opioids have been linked to nearly 430,000 deaths since 2000. This has resulted in state and federal agencies working to curb the spread of opioids through alternative treatments for patients that wouldn’t rely on prescription opioid pills. President Trump announced on Sept. 4 that the Department of Health and Human Services would receive $1.8 billion in funding to help states combat the opioid crisis.