Mar 13, 2018 3 min read

The year 2017 was only three days old when the first overdose death was reported to the Washington County coroner’s office, and the final day of the year saw two people dying of drug overdoses.

While the number of overall drug overdose deaths fell slightly last year, Coroner Tim Warco said fentanyl and fentanyl-related overdose deaths rose.

In 2017, there were 71 fentanyl-related deaths, compared to 47 the previous year. Of those deaths, 48 were from fentanyl combined with other drugs and 23 from fentanyl alone. The previous year, there were 40 deaths from taking a combination of fentanyl and other drugs, and seven deaths from taking only fentanyl.

Heroin-related deaths decreased from 47 in 2016 to 25 in 2017. Of the 2017 deaths, 22 died after ingesting heroin with other drugs, while three died after taking heroin alone. In 2016, there were 40 deaths from heroin in combination with other drugs, with seven deaths from heroin alone.

Addicts often do not know what they are getting when they buy what they think is heroin, the coroner said.

“Some of them do not realize what they are buying is straight fentanyl,” Warco said. “This stuff is homemade in makeshift labs.

“When we find some of the victims where it is later determined they died of a fentanyl overdose, the syringe is still in them or very near by,” the coroner added. “And this is not a problem just here, but across the state.”

Toxicology tests are done by his office to find the cause of death, Warco said.

“I just need to find the drugs that caused the death,” the coroner said. “But the district attorney has asked for some additional testing to be done to isolate the type of fentanyl, for example, for possible prosecution. Those tests take it a step further.”

The administration of Narcan has helped cut down on the number of overdose deaths, he said.

Warco’s budget for the coroner’s office has earmarked $50,000 for drug testing. He said drug testing and autopsies take up about half of the office’s budget.

“I always do a toxicology screen as part of a complete forensic exam,” Warco said.

When Warco became coroner in 1992 there were two deaths attributed to drugs. That number rose to double digits in 2002 and has remained above that level.

Warco also said there were fewer homicides in 2017 than the previous year, with three men and one woman dying, compared to five men and three women in 2016.

“And I think some homicides were drug-related,” Warco said.

The number of people killed in traffic crashes increased in 2017, with 24 people dying on county roads, eight more than the previous year.

There were 2,069 cases reported to the coroner’s office in 2017, 68 fewer than the previous year.