Ohio Drug Overdoses Hit Record High

The number of illegal drug and prescription painkiller related deaths have reached a record high in the state of Ohio, totaling more than 1,900 according to a recent report.

The report, released by the Ohio Department of Health, details how the overdose death rate in Ohio has climbed by 366 percent since 2000, making it the leading cause of injury-related death in the state. According to the report, drug overdoses passed fatal automobile collisions as a leading cause of accidental death in 2007, when the drug problem in the state was first acknowledged as a serious "public health crisis" by officials.

Heroin, the report shows, is largely to blame for this increased climb, as only heroin and "unspecified" drugs were the only categories to see a rise in overdose-related deaths between 2011 and 2012.

In that time, heroin overdose numbers spiked from 16 percent of all overdoses to more than 35 percent in 2012, nearly matching prescription opioid overdose numbers, which saw a drop for the first time in ten years following 2011. According to the state, approximately 680 people died from heroin overdoses in 2012, up from 426 deaths in 2011.

Still, not everything is bad news. Authorities in Ohio and other states experiencing similar overdose problems have begun to make emergency treatments that can reverse a painkiller or heroin-driven opioid overdose more readily available to first responders and police officers at the behest of the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder.

The same naloxone emergency treatment -- called Evzio -- has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use by family and caretakers of at-risk opioid abusers. Now, with the federal government's blessing, family members who can identify when a loved one is experiencing an overdose can reverse the adverse effects of the potentially dangerous situation. The hope is that this drug, while only a temporary fix for a major drug-abuse problem in the U.S., will help lower climbing death rates.

The "2012 Ohio Drug Overdose Deaths" report was published by the Ohio Department of Health in March and updated this April.

© MD News Daily.