Nev. heroin overdose deaths nearly tripled since 2010
By Jessie Bekker, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Opioid-related deaths in Nevada have decreased slightly since 2010, but the number of fatal heroin overdoses has nearly tripled since then, according to state data presented Thursday.
But that pattern appears to be changing as well, as heroin-related deaths remained unchanged between 2015 and 2016 while deaths from synthetic opioids, including the super-potent painkiller fentanyl, rose by 56 percent.
“I think the data is definitely evidence that there’s a shift,” Kyra Morgan, chief biostatistician of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, said Thursday in a presentation to roughly 45 state and local officials gathered in Reno and Las Vegas.
