Record Number Of Heroin Deaths Occured In Ohio During 2013

The State Department of Health says a record number of Ohio residents have died from heroin related overdoses in the year 2013.

983 people died in 2013 as compared to 690 in 2012. Fatal heroin overdoses are a problem here in Muskinugm County too. Muskingum Behavioral Health CEO, Steve Carrel told us more.

"Well according to the statistics that were released by the Department of Health, there were 10. Which is low compared to other counties, but a heroin overdose is not always evident when a person dies and so sometimes it doesn’t get recorded and in talking with various folks about how the datas collected, a lot of times it is overlooked."

Carrel says the heroin epidemic is the worst he has seen in his time in the field. However, Carrel told us compared to the rest of the State, this area is fairly normal when it comes to deadly heroin overdoses. Carrel told us why it is such a dangerous drug to use.

"The biggest contributor is–alcoholics drink alcohol and it takes more to get them drunk than before. When an alcoholic stops drinking, and then if they relapse their tolerance is still high. With heroin and pain killers, you build that tolerance up, if you have a period of not using, your tolerance doesn’t stay up there, it comes back down."

Carrel says often times after a period of not using, one will try to use the same amount of heroin that got the individual high the last time which can sometimes result in death.