Onondaga County opioid overdose deaths rise 11 percent in 2018

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Onondaga County saw an 11 percent increase in opioid overdose deaths last year fueled largely by the powerful drug fentanyl.

There were 101 unintended opioid deaths in 2018, up from 91 in 2017, according to the Onondaga County Health Department. The county’s opioid death toll peaked at 142 in 2016.

Opioids are a highly addictive class of drugs that includes illegal street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl as well as prescription painkillers like Oxycodone. Syracuse and the rest of the nation have been in the grips of an opioid epidemic for several years.

Fentanyl, used alone or mixed with heroin or other drugs, was involved in 70 of the 101 deaths last year. Thirty-one of the overdoses involved both fentanyl and heroin.

Fentanyl is a painkiller commonly used in hospital operating rooms. An illicit version of the drug made in Mexico and China is being mixed with heroin and other drugs by drug dealers nationwide. It can be up to 100 percent more potent than heroin.

Fentanyl deaths are soaring nationally. Between 2013 and 2016 the number of fentanyl deaths in the US doubled each year, according to a recent report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ACR Health in Syracuse recently began distributing test strips to heroin users so they can test their drugs before shooting up to see if they contain fentanyl.

Syracuse heroin users given strips to test for deadly additives before getting high

Needle exchange clients get test strips to see if their drugs are laced with fentanyl.

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