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By TERRY SHERIDAN | WSHU PUBLIC RADIO
Photo by RENO BERANGER / PIXABAY
This year the total number of deaths by drug overdose in the US dropped for the first time since 1990. That’s because the number of deaths by prescription opioid painkillers also dropped. But fatal ODs linked to fentanyl and methamphetamine are on the rise. What’s being done in our region to stop this trend?
Today's Guests:
Rep. Themis Klarides, Minority Leader, Connecticut House of Representatives
Steve Hamm, Reporter, Connecticut Health I-Team
Regan Moriarty, Director of Clinical Services, Wellmore Behavioral Health
Robert Haswell, Director of Integrated Primary Care Clinic, Wellmore Behavioral Health
Joe Shaw, Executive Editor, The Southampton Press, The East Hampton Press, Sag Harbor Express, 27east.com
Dr. Sabina Rebis, Stony Brook, Southampton
Mike Balsamo, Federal Law Enforcement Reporter, AP
The conversation references more than 70 people overdosing on the New Haven Green in August 2018. The drug responsible was the illicit synthetic marijana, K2 — not fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Gail D’Onofrio, the chief of emergency medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital, said at the time fentanyl was not found in blood tests of victims.