Kentucky drug overdose deaths up 5% last year after dropping in 2018. Here’s why.
Kentucky’s rate of fatal drug overdoses climbed again last year after dropping by double digits in 2018, according to an annual state report released Monday.
Driven largely by an uptick of fentanyl and its analogues, a fully synthetic opioid more powerful than heroin, and the widespread availability of “potent [and] inexpensive” methamphetamine, the Office of Drug Control and Policy said fatal overdoses rose by 5 percent in 2019 statewide. That’s an increase of 69 overdose deaths, totaling 1,316.
“There is no doubt that the nationwide opioid crisis is hitting Kentucky at an alarming rate,” Justice and Public Safety Secretary Mary Noble said in a statement.
Kentucky has been gutted by the opioid epidemic, but that appeared to be letting up in 2018 when fatal overdoses dropped by 15 percent, the most dramatic reduction in more than a decade. That was a stark improvement from 2017, when overdose deaths hit a record high of 1,566. Since 2015, upwards of 7,800 people have died by drug overdoses in Kentucky.
Last year, the majority of people who died from an overdose were between the ages of 35 and 44, according to the report. Fentanyl was involved in nearly 60 percent of those deaths and meth played a part in close to 40 percent. The use of Gabapentin, morphine and oxycodone also grew in prominence.
Estill County reported 11 fatal overdoses, amounting to roughly 81 per capita, the highest death rate based on population, followed by Grant, Boyd, Greenup and Anderson counties. Grant County saw the greatest increase in the number of deaths, followed by Nelson, Oldham and Pike counties.
Overall, Jefferson County reported the most fatal overdoses — 281 — but also the greatest decrease from 2018, by 38 deaths. Other counties with the biggest drops in deaths were Fayette, Kenton and Campbell counties.
While the report pointed to abuse of powerful fentanyl to explain the increase in drug overdose deaths last year, it said that was exacerbated by the availability of methamphetamine.
Opioids, which are a depressant, block the brain’s sensors that regulate the respiratory system, making the risk of death more imminent. Fentanyl, because it’s much more powerful in smaller quantities, heightens the risk of death unless naloxone, or Narcan, is administered to immediately reverse the drug’s effects.
Meth, a stimulant, is less likely to kill someone immediately. Instead, it corrodes the body and central nervous system over time. It’s not uncommon for meth to be cut with fentanyl in order to up its potency.
At one time, the state had a problem with people mixing ingredients to make meth at home, but that practice has all but ended. Most meth being abused in Kentucky now is made in large labs in Mexico and smuggled into the U.S., where it is cheap and widely available, police said.
Knox County Sheriff Mike Smith said meth is the most prevalent drug local officers see. Recent cases have involved meth brought into the rural county from Louisville, Nashville and Atlanta, but it originated in Mexico, he said.
“They ship it in in pounds,” he said.
The new report said Pulaski County had five heroin deaths among residents in 2019. That was well below the 61 in Jefferson County and 17 in Fayette, but tied the county with much more populous Warren County among the top five in Kentucky.
Sheriff Greg Speck said local police had noticed an increase in heroin, brought in from the Louisville and Cincinnati areas, and prosecuted people for deaths related to heroin.
Heroin users face risk because they often don’t know the purity of the drug, Speck said.
“They’re playing Russian roulette every time they shoot up,” he said.
Speck said heroin abuse appears to have subsided in the county, but as in other parts of the state, meth use has gone up.
“It seems like for everyone now the drug of choice is meth,” he said.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 3:03 PM.
