Fentanyl is named the deadliest drug in the country

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) – A new report issued by the Center for Disease Control is naming fentanyl as the deadliest drug in the country. They say it is 80-100 times stronger than heroin or cocaine.

Nikki Strunck knows all too well that the new report isn’t made up of numbers, but of people. Her son Brendan was one of them. He died of an overdose in January 2016.

“It’s not something you can chance anymore. And we’ve known that for a while, but now with this coming out it’s really evident that it’s not anything that you can even begin to chance,” said Strunck.

According to the CDC report, the rate of fentanyl overdoses has skyrocketed. The report comes as no surprise to state officials in Kentucky. The executive director of the Office of Drug Control Policy says he’s tracked fentanyl as the top drug killer in the state for three years now.

The Office of Drug Control Policy says it’s seeing fentanyl now mixed with meth, cocaine and other drugs, not just heroin. That’s why Strunck wants people to know it’s not worth the risk for them and their loved ones.

“You do not want your mom to have to be the one to find you and call 911 and live with that. Because I’d love to say it’s almost three years later and that part of me has healed, but it hasn’t. And I’m not sure it will ever truly heal,” Strunck said.

A separate CDC report released last month shows that Kentucky has the fifth highest rate of overdose deaths in the nation.