With the latest data now available from May, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has increased the overdose death prediction for 2017 from 775 to 806, a sign that the crisis continues to grow worse with each day.

More than 250 people have fatally overdosed on opiates in Cuyahoga County this year so far, with a significant portion of those deaths being attributed to fentanyl, according to the most recent reports. For years now, dealers have cut the powerful painkiller into the local heroin supply. More and more, cocaine is being cut with fentanyl as well.

Also of note: The rate of African American overdose deaths is increasing by almost 100 percent over last year.

This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2017.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

One reply on “Cuyahoga County Overdose Death Prediction Climbs to 806 for This Year”

  1. It’s a good thing that this chart shows no worrisome information at all, now council can get their focus back to avoiding a referendum on the Q Transformation! You know, because that’s really the important issue that the people that voted them into office would like solved, not this one. Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise, and I get the feeling like city council isn’t paying attention to this at all…

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