Overdose deaths up more than 30 percent in Cincinnati area

March 22, 2018 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

A coroner says fatal drug overdoses rose sharply last year in the Cincinnati area, and the numbers would have been even worse without the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone.

Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco announced Tuesday that her office saw a spike of more than 30 percent in overdose cases in 2017. Most of the 529 people killed had a mix including an opioid in their bloodstream. Sammarco said naloxone is saving a “huge” number of lives.