Las Vegas, NV (KXNT) - In an attempt to raise awareness of its dangers, Clark County is releasing numbers showing a sharp increase of deaths involving fentanyl.
During a 24-hour period on August 12, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported five suspected fentanyl-related overdose deaths occurred in Clark County. Between January and May, there were 92 deaths among Clark County residents, a 39 percent increase over the same period in 2020 with 66 deaths. In 2020, there were a total of 193 fentanyl deaths; 72 deaths were reported in 2019.
“It is important that Southern Nevadans are aware of the continued public health risk that fentanyl poses in our community,” said Dr. Fermin Leguen, District Health Officer of the Southern Nevada Health District. “We continue to see the toll fentanyl takes. It can be fatal and it can be found in other drugs as well.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic (man-made) opioid drug that is highly potent (80-100 times stronger than morphine) and often illicitly manufactured. Deaths involving illicit fentanyl have been increasing. Fentanyl can be mixed with illicit substances (often unknowingly) to look like heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. More commonly, fentanyl is being pressed into counterfeit pills and sold on the street as Percocet, Xanax, or Oxycodone, which is contributing factor in the increase of fatal overdose.
Since 2018, 412 Clark County residents died from fentanyl.