Unusual Increase of Drug Related Deaths in Ohio

Ten Drug-Related Deaths Within 26-Hours

Tyler Hatfield, Staff Writer
October 3, 2019

On Sunday, September 29th, at 10 am, a report came in that another Ohio citizen had died from an overdose. This would be the tenth report within just 26 hours of an Ohioan dying from an overdose, a rather unusual amount of drug-related deaths in such a short amount of time.

“One Ohio county has had an unusually high number of overdose deaths in a little over a day,” Frankin County Coroner, Dr. Anahi Ortiz, told Facebook.

Ortiz informed CNN news reporters that in a typical 24-hour period, Franklin normally experiences around one to two overdose related deaths. She also informed CNN that the last peak of overdose deaths in the Franklin area was on August 12, when the county experienced six deaths in less than 24 hours.

“The majority of overdose deaths continue to be fentanyl related,” Ortiz said in one of her statements.
 Typically, the victims of fentanyl overdose in the area are white males, between the age of 30 and 40 years old, though in the first six months of 2019 the county has seen in increase of African Americans dying from fentanyl as well.
The first six months of 2019 saw 257 overdoses, 75% of which were fentanyl related.