Muskingum County has seen a 70% increase of fatal overdoses since 2017

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Records show there has been a 20% increase of fatal drug overdoses in Ohio since 2017 with a 70% rise in Muskingum County.

There were 20 fatal overdoses in 2017 and 34 to date in 2018. CEO of Muskingum Behavioral Health, Steve Carrel, said the number of reports are starting to slow down though.

“It’s a tremendous amount of death happening related to the opioid epidemic right now,” said Carrel. “When we look at these numbers, we got to remember there’s families and loved ones that are behind these numbers that are grieving.”

Carrel said Muskingum County has started an overdose team to analyze data and hopefully come up with solutions. He said this is a big problem that won’t go away quickly.

“We need people to get educated on what addiction is and address it,” Carrel explained. “Don’t sit back thinking, ‘this is just a phase, this is going to go away,’ because a person who’s truly addicted, the addiction is not going away by itself.”

Carrel said if you suspect someone is overdosing, call 911 immediately.