New Orleans' drug-related deaths exceeded murders in 2016

[fleur-de-lisa]

http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2017/03/drug_overdoses_new_orleans.html#incart_m-rpt-2

The number of accidental drug-related deaths in New Orleans in 2016 exceeded the number of murders for perhaps the first time in the city's history, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office.

Drug-related deaths totaled 211 last year, more than double the 92 drug-related deaths reported in 2015 and eclipsing the 2016 murder tally of 175. Opioids were discovered in 166 of the fatal overdoses in 2016, more than twice the 2015 total of 81.

The powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl was found in 48 of the 166 people who died with opioids in their system, Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Rouse said in a news release. That represents a three-fold increase from the 13 who died in 2015 after using fentanyl.

Fatal drug overdoses are difficult to categorize, as multiple drugs are often present in the victim's body at the time of death. If heroin and a prescription painkiller like OxyContin are both present, for example, toxicologists may struggle to identify which one caused the death, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

[TexasTowelie]

1. Thanks for the post.

The opioid epidemic is destroying so many lives and it goes beyond the victims to extend to the families and friends of the deceased.