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Dangerous Drug Mixture On Ohio's Streets Is Blamed For Many Recent Opioid Deaths In Ohio Right Now

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As opiate deaths continue to climb in Ohio, there’s another deadly trend that’s apparently gaining popularity – drug combinations. 

The Ohio Health Department’s Dr. Mark Hurst says the “speedball”, the combination of heroin and cocaine, was what led to actor John Belushi’s death in the 1980’s. And he says there’s a similar combination that’s responsible for the recent rash of opioid deaths in Ohio right now but this one involves something more potent than heroin.

“The potency of fentanyl is 50 times that of heroin and so it’s even more lethal in a dose than heroin would be,” Hurst says.

Fentanyl deaths more than doubled in the latest stats available from the Ohio Department of Health. More than 4000 Ohioans died of opioid-related causes last year. And due to the rising deaths caused by this lethal combination, the state is on track to lose more than 5,000 people to overdoses this year.  

Contact Jo Ingles at jingles@statehousenews.org.
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