Health

'Speedballs' of Fentanyl and Cocaine are Responsible for New Rash of Opiate-Related Deaths

Ideastream Public Media | By Jo Ingles,

Published April 4, 2018 at 6:37 PM EDT

As opiate deaths continue to climb in Ohio, yet another deadly drug combination is making its rounds.

The “speedball,” a combination of heroin and cocaine, led to actor John Belushi’s death in the 1980’s. And the Ohio Health Department’s Dr. Mark Hurst says there’s a similar combination that’s responsible for the recent rash of opioid deaths in Ohio now. But this one involves something more potent that heroin.

“The potency of fentanyl is 50 times that of heroin and so it’s even more lethal in a dose than heroin would be.”

Fentanyl deaths more than doubled in the latest stats available from the Ohio Department of Health. More than 4,000 Ohioans died of opioid-related causes last year. And due to the rising deaths caused by this lethal combination, the state is on track to lose more than 5,000 people to overdoses this year.

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Jo Ingles

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.

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Karen Kasler

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.

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