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Steve Birr | Vice Reporter
The recent death of # An Ohio police chief is the result of an overdose of fentanyl, an on-site autopsy report released by a local coroner revealed on Friday.
Authorities in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, found Kirkersville Police Chief James Hughes Jr., who died on May 25. with a plastic sandwich bag containing cocaine residue and two syringes that were then tested positive for fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Hughes was chief of police for just over two months before his death, reported WCMH.
The autopsy report, published by the Franklin County Coroner's Office, stated that Hughes died of acute intoxication by fentanyl. from an accidental overdose. (RELATED: The historical bust of narcotics yields enough fentanyl to "kill everyone on the East Coast")
Hughes' death is the second tragedy in the Kirkersville Police Department. The community lost Chief Steven Eric DiSario in May 2017 after being shot and killed while responding to a hostage situation.
The coroner's report highlights the disastrous nature of the opioid crisis across the state. Ohio currently has the second-highest drug overdose mortality rate in the country, surpassing only West Virginia. Nearly 40 out of 100,000 people are dying from drug-related overdoses in Ohio
The state lost 4,329 residents in 2016, an increase of 24% over 2015, fueled by the tide synthetic opioids like fentanyl that continues to country. The number of opioid deaths would be much higher without the presence of the overdose naloxone overdose, officials say. The first responders in Ohio administered approximately 43,000 doses of naloxone in 2016.
Data released Wednesday by officials from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that the majority of opioid-related deaths are result of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. report shows that synthetic opioids killed around 27,000 people across the United States in the 12 months to November 2017, up from 19,413 in 2016 and 9,580 in 2015. The sharp increase prompted officials CDC's "The dramatic increase in the supply of fentanyl and illegally manufactured fentanyl analogues is reflected in an equally dramatic increase in deaths involving synthetic drugs." other opioids than methadone, a category that includes analogues of fentanyl and fentanyl, "officials told BC News. "This overdose of 12-month overdose deaths from synthetic opioids exceeds the total number of all opioid overdose deaths in 2013, when deaths involving synthetic opioids began to climb."
The medical alert warns that first responders may not be aware of the amount of synthetic opioids floating around the supply of drugs in their community. He says patients with opioid overdose may require increased care and "prolonged administration of naloxone in emergency hospitals because of delayed toxicity that has been reported in some cases "
Nationally, overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death. Americans under 50 years of age, killing more than 64,000 people in 2016.
