Florida medical examiners have recorded a sharp increase in deaths related to opioid overdoses, especially in South Florida.
The Miami Herald reports that medical examiners throughout Florida reported the spike in overdose deaths from heroin and the synthetic narcotic fentanyl in the first six months of 2015, the latest data available.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says the trend is worse in South Florida. Miami-Dade saw a 100-percent jump in heroin deaths, and increases were nearly 210-percent in Broward and 425-percent in Palm Beach counties.
Fentanyl deaths were up 310-percent in Miami-Dade and 100-percent in Broward.
Public health experts told the Herald deaths from both drugs have skyrocketed nationwide.
Officials attribute the deaths in South Florida to users shifting to heroin and fentanyl after a crackdown on Oxycodone.
