More Summit County residents overdose as opioid dangers now lurk in all street drugs

April 27--Twenty-eight people from 16 ZIP codes in Summit County sought hospital help after overdosing on drugs during the past seven days.

That momentarily reverses a general trend of declining overdoses that began here around November.

People trying to tame the local opioid crisis have been cautiously optimist that some of their efforts to warn people about the danger of opioids and to get addicts into rehab might be paying off.

Yet they've also cautioned the danger is evolving.

Fentanyl is now creeping into all kinds of street drugs here. Some of it is accidental cross-contamination that happens when dealers are packaging drugs for sale.

But more disturbing, officials say, is that some dealers are intentionally spiking cocaine and other drugs with fentanyl or other opioids hoping to create more addicts.

More addicts mean more sales and more money for the dealers.

The hospital data Summit County Public Health tracks doesn't provide what drugs causes the reported overdoses.

But earlier this month, after three Akron women died of apparent overdoses during a party to celebrate one of their 20th birthdays, health officials warned of the unprecedented danger lurking in the street drug market.

"I think this is the riskiest time in history for any recreational drug use, partly because you never know what you're getting, " Dr. Doug Smith of Summit County Public Health said.

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