While heroin-related deaths are seeing ‘epidemic-levels’ in other parts of the Ohio Valley, Tennessee health officials say the state hit its record number of drug overdose deaths last year.
The state Department of Health says 1,451 people died of drug overdoses last year, and the overdose death rate was 22 per 100,000 people. In comparison, the health department says 14 per 100,000 people died in car accidents last year. Nearly 72 percent of the overdose deaths involved opioids.
Deaths confirmed to have involved fentanyl, a drug 40 times stronger than heroin, rose from 69 total in 2014 to 174 in 2015. Health officials say the number has grown each year since 2011.
