Last year was the worst yet for opioid overdose deaths in Monroe County, according to data released today by the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s office.
The office says that 287 people died from opioid overdoses in Monroe, Allegany, Chemung, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties. That’s a substantial jump from the 206 deaths in 2016 and a staggering increase from the 11 overdose deaths in 2011.
Of the 2017 deaths, 220 occurred in Monroe County. Again, those numbers are higher than the 169 overdose deaths in 2016 and the 78 deaths that happened between 2011 and 2013.
The ME’s office found fentanyl in 261 of the region’s overdose victims from last year, an increase over 2016. Heroin was present in 96 of them, a decrease from 2016.
The medical examiner’s office also says that about 89 percent of the people who died from an overdose in 2017 were white, 9 percent were black, and 8 percent were Hispanic. That breakdown has been generally similar over the past few years.
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This article appears in Jul 4-10, 2018.
EIGHTY NINE PERCENT WHITE!!!
Just let that sink in. I thought they would all be Mexicans because that’s what trump told me!
89% is the inconvenient truth.
287 deaths from overdoses is a tremendous tragedy and not something to Politicize.
The reality is that most of these deaths could be prevented with the most basic of treatment. Suboxone and Methadone have at minimum a 50% impact on Opioid addictions. Yet patients are seen in the ED for overdoses and discharged without prescriptions.
Until society changes the way addictions and addicts are viewed this problem will continue to worsen