DuPage Coroner Releases 2016 Heroin and Opiate Death Statistics

On Tuesday, the DuPage County Coroner’s Office released the number of suspected opioid related deaths from 2016. There were a total of 78 opiate related deaths in 2016, a 78% increase from last year.

"The numbers are startling and show that we continue to have a serious problem of addiction and death related to legal and illegal opioids," the Coroner's Office stated in a press release.

An increasing number of deaths have been caused by synthetic opiates such as Fentanyl and Carfentanil. The office said last year DuPage county had its first death due to Carfentanil, which is 10,000 times stronger than morphine.

The Coroner's office also noted the number of deaths would be much higher if emergency personnel didn't have the opioid antidote known as naloxone.

The following are the number of opiate deaths for the last two years:

2015

• Heroin alone -36
• Heroin/Fentanyl mixture -7
• Fentanyl alone -8
• Total deaths -51

2016

• Heroin alone -36 (same)
• Heroin/Fentanyl mixture -26 (271% increase)
• Fentanyl alone -16 (100% increase )
• Total deaths -78 (53% increase)

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