Overdose deaths drop in 2018, but multiple-drug overdoses remain a concern

The Bartholomew County Coroner’s office investigated 17 overdose deaths related to the opioid crisis in 2018, compared to 30 reported the year before.

There have only been three confirmed overdose fatalities as of April 10, Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting said at a forum sponsored by the Ninth Street Park Neighborhood Watch.

All of the overdose deaths in 2018 were ruled accidental instead of suicide, Nolting said.

Two were directly related to injecting large amounts of anti-depressant medications such as benzodiazepine, he said. Another was caused by taking a large amount of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid similar to morphine — one that is 50 to 100 times more potent, the coroner said.

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While overdose deaths are down significantly, Nolting warned that too many people continue to abuse these drugs at an extreme rate.

“We’re seeing more and more heroin-laced fentanyl on the streets,” Nolting said. “It’s getting to the point where some officers do not carry enough Narcan (naloxone) to reverse the effects.”

Narcan is a brand name for the opioid antidote naloxone, which is now available over-the-counter at local pharmacies. Nolting says the easy accessibility of naloxone may be one reason why first responders are being called to fewer overdoses.

While 10 of the 17 overdose deaths last year were opioid-related, none were directly connected to heroin, the coroner said. While many victims did have some heroin in their system, “it was fentanyl that actually killed these individuals,” Nolting said.

Quite often, fentanyl will cause breathing to slow down to the point where the victim stops breathing, he said. Even if the victim is revived, those who go a long period without oxygen run a substantial risk of suffering permanent brain damage, Nolting said.

“And we’re seeing fentanyl coming in through all different ports of entry into Columbus,” said Nolting, who added that almost every overdose death investigated by his office involves more than one drug.

“Generally, what happens is that the user goes into cardiac arrest (due to multiple drugs),” Nolting said. “When we get the toxicology back, we often find huge amounts of methamphetamine in that person’s system.”

Those toxicology reports confirm what several law enforcement have said over the past three years — methamphetamine remains the most popular illegal street drug in the Columbus area, Nolting said.

Three overdoses in 2018 were directly related to prescription opioids, which covers hundreds of different types of prescription narcotics, Nolting said.

Three others involved individuals who took too much of an anti-anxiety medication called benzodiazepine, which has the brand name Clonazepam. While too much of this medication is taken, and the user mixes it with excessive amounts of alcohol, the combination can be lethal, the coroner said.