Fatal drug overdoses in Ohio increase to record number
A review of the data shows fentanyl continued to fuel the drug epidemic
https://www.wkbn.com/news/ohio/fatal-drug-overdoses-in-ohio-increase-to-record-number/1468760131
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Information reported to the state shows fatal drug overdoses increased to a record 4,854 last year in Ohio, a 20 percent rise compared with the previous year.
The Columbus Dispatch reports data on unintentional drug deaths reported to Ohio’s Department of Health show 2017 was the eighth year in a row that drug deaths increased. Ohio’s county coroners logged 4,050 fatal overdoses in 2016.
A review of the data shows fentanyl continued to fuel the drug epidemic. The synthetic opioid accounted for nearly three-fourths of last year’s overdose deaths.
A state Health Department spokesman says there was progress in reducing the number of prescription opioids available for abuse. Reported fatal overdoses from prescription opioids last year totaled 523, the lowest number in eight years.
This report is like a Magician … what you see … challenges what you don’t see.. While legal opiate prescriptions are down as are OD deaths from those particular drugs … but what they are not talking about is the increase in use/abuse of Meth, Cocaine, Crack, Marijuana and other substances. We are now seeing reduced use/abuse of illegal Fentanyl analogs and Heroin because substance abusers are not necessarily STUPID… they are seeing how LETHAL the mixture of Heroin and a illegal Fentanyl analog that is being sold on the street is… so the typical substance abuser will chose to abuse what is in vogue, is the most available or the least expensive. But what is not being talked about much is that illegal Fentanyl analogs is now starting to show up in Cocaine that is being sold on the street.
Will the politicians/bureaucrats be able to do what seems to be the “simple math” that legal prescribing of pharma opiates has little/nothing to do with the use/abuse/OD’s of various legal and illegal opiates ? Color me skeptical !!!
Filed under: General Problems
This even shows the difference between abusers and addicts, …and proves their “opioid crisis” was never a pain patient medicine OR addict problem, but an uninformed, reckless abuser OD death problem from illicit, smuggled in ‘drugs’. “There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.”
I have been a pain management patient for 24 years now. In that 24 years, I have been adequately prescribed medication, by compassionate, concerned, doctors that truly care for their patients “body and soul” so to speak except for the last two years when the “misguidedline” enforced by the DEA became fully enforced to the letter. Prevailing thought now is that there can not possibly be opiate/opioid pain medications that serve a useful purpose. The direction that dot/gov chooses to continue to go is to further torture victims of pain generating disease, injury and bad outcomes of surgery in all forms. I was able to continue to own and operate the business I started at 23 years old until shortly after reduced so much in medication that I could no longer manage my families income. STILL waiting for SS Disability, 60 years old now, confined to a supine position most of the day but that does not ease the pain much. As mentioned here by everyone, how long will it take for dot/gov to understand why more people are overdosing now than ever. Not only are PPM’s absorbing incredible pain now, we are asked, no, made to “wait” until some form of medication that can not kill is developed even by abusers and unfortunate people that feel the need to escape the responsibilities of life. Ever heard of cannabis and the fantastic possibilities it could have IF allowed to be “legally” researched? I realize there are no easy answers and realistic data can be difficult to compile and takes time but, torture of patients with documentation of being responsible with prescribed medication when ALL else has failed as mentioned by all here is not that difficult to understand.
I love your reports, Steve, you magician! Of course I’m kidding. Steve is one of the smartest men on earth, on FB, on Social Media along with Red Lawhern, Dr. Webster and Dr Tennant and Dr Kline.
Steve, please, please help get our sad, uneducable Government see the REAL numbers. Why don’t they understand simple math? They must need “another government agency” to hand feed them evidence that illegal drugs are at the crux of this hysteria—always have been, but the sad part is, they still won’t understand, won’t listen and still can’t put two and two together. And we voted these people in?! Everyone sees the truth, but the US GOVERNMENT.
Get your heads out of your arses, Government!!! See the friggin light and get a handle on the ILLEGAL DRUGS crossing our boarders. It’s NOT prescription pain medicine. Leave the doctors alone and let them treat chronic pain with the right kind of medicine. You didn’t go to school for 10+ years to be a doctor; they did!
Please tell us how we can make this any easier for you to understand!! Steve, tell em’!!
Steve: As to your question “Will the politicians/bureaucrats be able to do what seems to be the “simple math” that legal prescribing of pharma opiates has little/nothing to do with the use/abuse/OD’s of various legal and illegal opiates ?” my response would be….not a chance in Hell. They’ve hopped on the hysteria bus & rammed the pedal to the floor, and (as we’ve seen a zillion times), politicians & bureaucrats are incapable of admitting they’re wrong. They’ll just keep doing what they’re doing, only more so. The evidence was out quite a while ago that opioid Rx’s have been going down for years as the illegal drug ODs skyrocketed, & they gave their answer just this week in Washington –legislation cracking down ever harder on Rx opioid manufacturers, the number of legal opioids allowed, on doctors, on everything but the actual problem. The streets of the entire nation could be covered 10 deep in the bodies of illegal drug OD victims, needles hanging out of their arms, and they’d keep doubling & quadrupling down on prescription meds.
I guess I’m even more skeptical than you are…
Canarensis, you are so right!!
4kids; ya know, usually it feels good to be told one is right. Too bad I’m right about an utter insanity!! But thanks 😉
Best to ya!