© 2024 WOSU Public Media
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Rash Of Drug Overdose Cases Hits Columbus

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther says opiate addiction is 'ravaging the city.'

Columbus police and health officials said today they have responded to an increased number of overdoses in the city, many of them in the Linden neighborhood.

They say it’s the second overdose outbreak in the last 3 months. 

In the past day alone, Columbus EMS has responded to 35 overdose incidents. Paramedics have administered the reversal drug Naloxone to 27 of those cases. But Franklin County Coroner Anahi Ortiz said two people died.

“Out of that number ten percent have died so we have a ten percent rate of death to overdoses.  The overdose deaths that occurred in the last 24 hours were males in their 40s” Ortiz explained.

Police warn users that there could be a highly potent and dangerous strain of heroin circulating in Central Ohio.