HENDRICKS COUNTY, Ind. -- Hendricks County is on course this year to surpass the number of opioid related deaths in 2016. In the last week of October alone, two more people in the county died due to opioid overdoses. One at the age of 21, the other 45 years old.
“I can’t say this is an age thing, it’s not a youth problem,” says Rick Morphew, Hendricks County Coroner. “This drug does not discriminate with the people it gets its claws into.”
Morphew says opioid death investigations take his office all over the county into hotels, cars, the streets, to expensive neighborhoods.
According to Morphew, by the end of 2016, 20 people died due to an opioid overdose in Hendricks County.
Morphew says when looking at the data, his office is seeing a range of deaths from fentanyl, oxycodone, methamphetamine and heroin. He says the drugs are all derivatives of some type of opioid.
“I think we will meet, or even exceed what we had last year,” says Morphew on the rising number of deaths in the county.
So far in 2017, there have been 19 deaths in Hendricks County related to an opioid overdose with the average age of death at 35 years old.
The Hendricks County Substance Abuse Task Force, the Hendricks County Health Department and the Hendricks County Coroner’s Office are actively working to encourage the community towards education on the issue of the opioid epidemic. Click here for more information from the Hendricks County Substance Abuse Task Force.
If you are a family member or know someone who is addicted and you are looking for a support group, there are several options (click on the group name for more information): Parents of Addicted Loved Ones, Indiana Al-Anon, Nar-Anon Family Groups, Co-Dependents Anonymous, and Celebrate Recovery.
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