New data show a surge in drug overdose deaths in Connecticut during the first three months of this year involving the opioid fentanyl. The information was released on Friday by the State's Chief Medical Examiner Dr. James Gill.
"We've seen a dramatic increase in the number of fentanyl deaths," Gill said. "That's illicit fentanyl that's being sold on the street -- projections for the year that would be close to double the number of fentanyl deaths that we saw in 2015."
Overall projections for fatal drug overdoses are up about 14 percent from last year, but Gill said the year before that was even higher -- at 28 percent.
"So we're still seeing an increase this year, but it's less of an increase than we saw last year, and so that may be evidence that drug intoxication deaths may be starting to level out," Gill said.
Gill said hard data from the Medical Examiner's office can be used to measure the effectiveness of various interventions and hopefully lower the number of overdose deaths.
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