Overdose Deaths in Maryland Continued Grim Spike Last Year (Baltimore Sun)

Thursday Jun 9th, 2016

Despite increasing efforts to stem the grim tide of overdose deaths, the use of heroin and fentanyl, largely in the Baltimore region, pushed up the number of fatalities 21 percent last year in Maryland to 1,259, the state reported Thursday.

That's nearly twice the number of overdose deaths in 2010, according to the new data from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The deaths include all those who died of overdoses from drugs and alcohol, but the biggest increases were related to opioids. Heroin-related fatal overdoses rose 29 percent, to 748. Deaths from Fentanyl, which is many times stronger and often mixed with or substituted for heroin without a user's knowledge, rose 83 percent, to 340.

Read More at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-heroin-overdoses-20160609-story.html

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