At least 104 persons died of drug overdoses in Mahoning County last year, according to an ‘Overdose Surveillance Report’ distributed by the Mahoning County Board of Health that was obtained by The Boardman News.
      The report also shows there were 1,241 visits to hospital emergency rooms last year for treatment of drug overdoses in Mahoning County, and that among all communities in the county, Boardman Township rates second in visits to an emergency room for drug overdoses, with 183 visits. The city of Youngstown leads the listing with a reported 547 drug overdoses in 2017.
      The report was prepared by Laura Bryer, prescription drug overdose coordinator, of the Mahoning County District Board of Health.
      “Mahoning County has been experiencing a drastic increase of drug overdoses and drug overdose deaths in the past few years,” Bryer said in the surveillance report, adding for the period 2010-2015 the county ranked seventh in the state of Ohio in the number of drug overdose deaths.
      In the past four years, according to Bryer’s report, drug overdose death in Mahoning County have been steadily on the rise.
      In 2014, 60 ‘OD’ deaths were reported in Mahoning County, and according to Bryers, the 104 deaths reported in 2017 does not include nine overdose death “that are unconfirmed and are currently being processed.”
      Whilte Youngstown and Boardman Township ranked one-two in reported drug overdose in Mahoning County in 2017, Austintown Township ranks third with a reported 129 overdoses.
      According to the Ohio Department of Health, more than 4000 people died of “unintentional drug overdoses” in the state in 2017, among the highest death rates of any state in the nation.
      A report prepared by the Center for Disease Control that was completed in Sept, 2017,suggests a “declining presence of heroin use,” as users/addicts are using more deadly fentanyl and carfentanil.
      The late Dr. Joseph Ohr, of the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office said early last year that “a unit of carfentanil is 100 times as potent as the same amount of fentanyl, 5,000 times as potent as a unit of heroin and 10,000 times as potent as a unit of morphine.”
      Boardman Township recorded its first drug overdose death of 2018 on Jan. 18, when 26-year-old John Baumgartner was found dead in the basement of his Grover Dr. home, a needle and burnt spoon found near his body. His father said Baumgartner had been addicted to opiates for at least five years.
      Upon his death, a post on Facebook said “Wow taken way too soon, the battle.... It’s people like John Baumgartner that battle...and don’t make it out. We need to put a stop to this. It’s not a epidemic, I consider it an apocalypse.”
      EMERGENCY HOSPITAL DRUG OVERDOSE VISITS IN 2017
      (Mahoning County)
      Berlin Center................1
      Campbell....................48
      Canfield.....................48
      Greenford.....................1
      Lake Milton.................19
      Lowellville..................18
      New Middletown...........5
      New Springfield............5
      North Jackson............13
      North Lima...................6
      Petersburg...................4
      Youngstown.............547
      Cornersburg.............105
      Boardman................183
      Poland.......................42
      Austintown...............129
      Sebring........................5
      Beloit............................3
      Damascus....................1
      SOURCE: Mahoning County
      District Board of Health
      Statistics Compiled By
      Zip Code