Fentanyl overdose deaths continue to rise in Southern Nevada

Fentanyl overdose deaths continue to rise in Southern Nevada with five fatalities reported in Clark County in a single day last week, the Southern Nevada Health District said Tuesday.

The continual rise in overdose deaths, which authorities previously warned about in April, prompted the health district to issue a public alert “about the ongoing risk in the community.”

“Between January and May there were 92 deaths among Clark County residents, a 39 percent percent increase over the same period in 2020 with 66 deaths,” the health district said in a news release. “In 2020 there were a total of 193 fentanyl deaths; 72 were reported in 2019.”

The health district said Las Vegas police responded to five suspected fentanyl-related overdose deaths on Thursday in Clark County. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. Fentanyl can be mixed with other drugs to look like heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine.

“More commonly, fentanyl is being pressed into counterfeit pills and sold on the street as Percocet, Xanax, or Oxycodone, which is contributing factor in the increase of fatal overdoses,” the health district said.

Since 2018, 412 Clark County residents died from fentanyl. Of these, 67 percent were male. Racial breakdowns were as follows: 52 percent white; 16 percent Black; 2 percent Asian; and 25 percent Hispanic/Latino.

Other drugs involved in overdose deaths include prescription opioids (27 percent); benzodiazepines (26 percent); and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine (25 percent), cocaine (18 percent), and heroin (6 percent). These proportions are not mutually exclusive as more than one drug can contribute to a death.

The health district and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend people who are at risk of opioid overdose as well as family members, friends or other individuals should carry naloxone, also known as Narcan, an opioid-antagonist that can be administered to help reverse opioid overdoses.

The health district offers free naloxone at its pharmacy at 280 S. Decatur Blvd.

Las Vegas police, the Drug Enforcement Administration and others said in April that local officials were responding to a significant rise in fentanyl overdoses and deaths. Metropolitan Police Department Capt. John Pelletier said fentanyl is often disguised as over the counter prescription medication.

“If you are not prescribed a drug from a pharmacist and doctor, do not take it,” Pelletier said. “Fentanyl is often disguised as a prescription pill, but it can be up to 100 times more potent than morphine or heroin. People who die from fentanyl believe they are taking a prescription-grade pill but they are taking a street, or pressed, pill that was made who knows where with who knows what. The bottom line is they didn’t know what they were taking.”

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.