NKY Counties Top Drugs Overdose Deaths

In an attempt to turn the tide, the Commonwealth of Kentucky tracks the number of drug overdoses each year.

The 2017 Overdose Fatality Report by the Kentucky State Drug Control Policy Bureau ranks Kenton the highest for most per capita drug overdose deaths. Campbell County is second

The report also breaks down the top five counties for heroin-related overdose deaths, overdose deaths related to fentanyl plus heroin and fentanyl in deaths by overdose combined. In all three categories, Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties rank in the top five.

>> Read the full report here.

WLWT is directed at drug advocates and drug addicts to better understand the numbers and no one "Cincinnati was the source in my opinion," said recovering drug addict Matt Peterson. "It's where me and everyone I used to, we went to Cincinnati, we went to the other side of the river to find our drug."

Almost five years without prescription pill treatment and heroin abuse, Peterson is now a peer recovery specialist aimed at helping other addicts to become sober.

"We are fighting a lost battle. As the report indicates, heroin deaths are down 12 percentage points between 2016 and 2017, but deaths from fentanyl have increased

. " It's very frustrating and discouraging sometimes, but then you get those patients and you talk to the people you have helped and you see them better, "Peterson said.

Northern Kentucky Hates Heroin tells WLWT that the figures correspond to Holly Specht and her family started the Northern Kentucky Hates Heroin after their son Nicholas died of a heroin overdose in 2013. [19659005] "I never thought our son was going to die, I never thought that he was going to die, but now that I know what I know, I realize his grip on People have the hold it has on their hearts, souls and brains, "Specht said.

Like Peterson, Specht's goal is one person at a time and to remove the stigma of the disease.

"We are accessible for that means we are making a difference.May be very small.Maybe one at a time, but this one at a time could be someone from Nicholas," Specht said. .