The Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy released the 2017 Kentucky Overdose Fatality Report which shows that overdoses in the state increased by 11.5 percent from the previous year. Authors of the study point to opioids as the cause of many of these overdoses and specifically the drug Fentanyl, which was identified as a factor in more than half of those cases.

The state implemented a prescription drug monitoring program, expanded substance abuse treatment opportunities, and enacted laws to try and curb the availability of many of these medications. Laws increasing penalties for drug traffickers and limiting prescriptions for acute pain to a three-day supply were recently enacted. Part of the recent legislation mandates that the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy release an annual public report to include data on these drug-related deaths. The data may be used to support community and health organizations in their goals to address substance abuse.

In 2017 overdose fatalities increased to 1,565, compared to 1,404 reported in 2016. Toxicology reports were available for 1,486 of the 2017 cases. The largest demographic in overdose deaths were people ages 35-44, followed by people ages 45-54. About 22 percent of deaths involved heroin, down from 34 percent in 2016. Fentanyl was involved in 763 overdose deaths, or 52 percent of all deaths. Fentanyl was involved in 47 percent of all deaths in 2016. Morphine, alprazolam, gabapentin, methamphetamine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone were also detected in a significant amount of cases.

Read the full report here and check out the Office of Drug Control Policy for more information and resources.