Heroin pushes St. Joseph County overdose deaths past murders, crashes

The latest spike in deadly overdoses comes as law enforcement and public health advocates at the local and state levels ratchet up their efforts to curb what they call an epidemic of heroin and prescription drug abuse.

Countywide, 59 people died of accidental drug overdoses last year, an increase from 42 in 2014. The number of the overdoses that involved opiates — such as heroin, oxycodone and fentanyl — more than doubled to 47 from 23 the previous year. Of those 47 cases, 27 involved heroin. The totals of heroin- and opiate-related overdoses were the highest in at least six years.

"It's an outrageously high number," said Sharon Burden, a counselor with the Alcohol and Addictions Resource Center and president of the county's Partnership for Education and Prevention of Substance Abuse. "There hasn't been the public reaction to that, like there perhaps would be if the same number of people had been shot and killed."

The county recorded 33 fatal crashes and 24 homicides in 2015, marking the first time overdoses have exceeded those totals since at least 2010, according to data available through the St. Joseph County Health Department. It's unclear whether fatal drug overdoses ever surpassed crashes and homicides before 2010 because the health department's annual reports did not track accidental overdose deaths.