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Trumbull overdose drug appears to be changing from heroin to fentanyl
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County overdose deaths, which reached a record level of 87 in 2015, appear to be continuing at the same pace this year, though the dominant drug appears to be changing to fentanyl.
Fentanyl is a painkiller that is considered many times more powerful than heroin.
Newly released statistics from the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office indicate there were 17 confirmed overdose deaths during the first 80 days of 2016 – through March 20.
It takes close to two months for toxicology results to be obtained before the coroner’s office can say for certain what drugs were present in the victim’s blood.
There were another eight deaths that are “probable” overdose deaths, for a total of 25, said Shelley Mazanetz, chief investigator for Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, coroner.
Through the first 80 days of 2015, the number was 22.
A big part of the ongoing overdose problem appears to be the increased presence of fentanyl, Mazanetz said.
Of the 25 overdose deaths this year, most likely 13 were from fentanyl and probably three more were from a combination of fentanyl and at least one other drug.
That means 16 of the 25 overdose deaths, or 64 percent, appear to have been fentanyl-related, she said.
By comparison, only nine of the 22 overdose deaths in the first 80 days of 2015 (41 percent) included fentanyl. In 2015, 20 of the 87 deaths included fentanyl (23 percent). Prior to 2016, the majority of the overdose deaths were heroin-related.
Increasing fentanyl-related overdose deaths are part of a national trend. In the Cincinnati area last year, 58 percent of all overdose deaths were fentanyl-related, according to the Associated Press.
Capt. Jeff Orr, commander of the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force, told attendees at Friday’s ASAP Coalition Drug Summit in Warren that the fentanyl dealt in the community is coming across the southern United States border after being manufactured in Russia and China.
Because of the strength of the drug, fentanyl overdoses can sometimes require first-responders to administer multiple doses of the opiate-reversal drug naloxone to revive a person, said Kathy Parilla, public-health nurse for the Trumbull County Board of Health, who runs the naloxone program for the health board.
She gave out 96 naloxone kits last year after giving a training course to the recipient, she said. Of those, she knows of five successful overdose reversals, and two of those people are in treatment, she said. She has given out 59 kits so far this year.
Among the police departments using naloxone are the ones in Warren, Newton Falls, Cortland, Bazetta, Lordstown, Hubbard and Hubbbard Township, as well as the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, Parilla said.
Warren Police Chief Eric Merkel said his department administered naloxone 20 times in 2015 starting May 15. Officers already have administered it 26 times this year.
One man has been administered the drug three times – Feb. 5, March 17 and April 11, Merkel said. Parilla said that person is the only one she’s aware of who has received the drug multiple times.