COLUMBUS – The number of drug overdose deaths in Franklin County leveled off in 2018, though the powerful opiate fentanyl was blamed for a larger share of the toll in a report released Thursday by the coroner’s office.
Only two more people died of drug overdoses in 2018 than the year before, though the total is a 46 percent increase from two years ago, indicating the explosive nature of the opioid crisis in central Ohio.
Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz reported that 522 people died of overdoses last year, compared with 520 in 2017 and 353 in 2016.
The largest percentage of the deaths were reported in five neighborhoods in the western, southwestern, southern and southeastern areas of the county.
Opiate-related deaths accounted for almost 92 percent of the fatal overdoses and fentanyl was blamed for 79 percent of them, though the powerful drug was responsible for only 61 percent in 2017, Ortiz said.
While her office saw a decline in deaths due to heroin and the animal tranquilizer carfentanil, there was an increase in those attributed to cocaine, methamphetamine and benzodiazepine-related drugs like Xanax and Valium.
Carfentanil-related deaths dropped to 1.1 percent of the total in 2018 from 18.5 percent in 2017 and heroin overdoses decreased to 12.2 percent from 15.9 percent.
The 54 methamphetamine overdose fatalities was nearly twice the number in 2017.