Boyd Coroner: 22 OD deaths in county this year so far | News

ASHLAND A new report from the Boyd County Coroner’s Office says indicates the agency responded to 22 overdose related-death scenes in the past six months.

Boyd County Coroner, Mark Hammond said of those 22, two were ruled as suicide and the other 20 were ruled as accidental. Hammond said that five of the deaths were female and the other 17 deaths were male. The age of the deceased ranged from 34 years old to 70 years old, said Hammond.

In November the Boyd County Coroner’s Office released numbers stating that the office had responded to 33 overdose related death scenes at that polint in 2018, and on average an overdose related death was being investigated in Boyd County every 10.89 days.

Hammond said the drugs causing the overdoses have remained consistent but the coroner said they are seeing a shift to methamphetamine containing fentanyl.

“We are still seeing heroin, but in the past year we are seeing a big shift to methamphetamine with it all containing fentanyl,” said Hammond. “Even marijuana, we are seeing it in that. Almost every overdose has more than one drug that caused their death also.”

Hammond said that fentanyl is prominent in this area.

“Along with almost all toxicology having Gabapentin in the toxicology,” Hammond added.

The nonprofit Pew Trusts reported in the Fall of last year that “Doctors who are cutting back on prescribing opioids increasingly are opting for gabapentin, a safer, non-narcotic drug recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

“By doing so, they may be putting their opioid-using patients at even greater risk,” Pew Trusts said. Recently, gabapentin has started showing up in a substantial number of overdose deaths in hard-hit Appalachian states. The neuropathic (nerve-related) pain reliever was involved in more than a third of Kentucky overdose deaths last year.”