Opioids continue their deadly grip

As concerns continue to grow about the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing toll it takes every day, it’s easy to forget about other health issues that continue to have a devastating effect on our region.

A sad reminder came last week when Ohio Attorney General David Yost released a report that shows the state’s death rate from opioid overdoses of 11.01 per 100,000 population in the second quarter of 2020 was the highest rate in the last decade, and larger than the previous 10-year high of 10.87 overdoses per 100,000 residents that had been recorded in the first quarter of 2017.