Mary Alice Reporting –
A statewide bulletin from the Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center is seeing an increase in the number of illicit drug samples containing a mixture of deadly drugs.
Launched in 2019, ONIC is a specialized criminal intelligence unit that works to assist local law enforcement in conducting intelligence-driven drug trafficking investigations.
Forensic and drug testing labs across the state, this year, have recorded 17 samples containing mixtures of carfentanil, which is estimated to be 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
Strategic Intelligence Analyst Alex VanDyke says the mixtures have been identified in tablets, powders, and rocks.
“They have unpredictable side effects and they can increase the risk of drug poisoning or drug overdose deaths. From 2017 through 2021, 56-percent of all drug poising deaths, in Ohio, involved a polydrug mixture, a combination of two or more drugs.”
He encourages all to never take anything that is not prescribe by a license healthcare provide and to take medications as prescribed.
Individuals can also carry the drug overdose reversal medication, Naloxone, which cannot be self-administered. These kits are available at the Tuscarawas County and New Philadelphia Health Departments.
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