About five times more people died of drug overdoses in Monroe County last year than died of gun violence. Even at that rate, there were 30 fewer OD deaths than the year before.
Monroe County law enforcement agencies tracked opioid drug and heroin overdoses for 2017 and just released their numbers for the full year. It shows 139 overdose deaths in the community, 102 of them in the second half of the year. Police responded to nearly 700 overdose cases in 2017. They recovered 430 people with Narcan.
In contrast with the 139 overdose deaths last year, there were 169 in 2016, 206 in 2015 but just 11 in 2011 when the opioid crisis was just taking off.