Fifty-six of 75 overdoses that the Jackson County Medical Examiner's Office has confirmed took place in 2022 involved fentanyl.

Deaths related to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid tied to a surge of drug overdoses across the United States, increased in Clatsop County last year.

In 2021, the county had one fentanyl-related death. In 2022, that figure jumped to seven, with most appearing in the second half of the year, Elizabeth DeVisser, the county’s chief medicolegal death investigator, said.

Four were deaths attributed to fentanyl, while three were attributed to mixed-drug toxicity that included fentanyl.

DeVisser said fentanyl-related deaths have not slowed midway through 2023.

“Our county is in dire straits regarding fentanyl right now,” she said.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a pain reliever and anesthetic. The drug is about 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.

On the black market, fentanyl can be sold alone or in combination with other drugs.

DeVisser said she does not believe the fentanyl problem is adequately understood in the county.

“Whenever I speak to families about the presence of fentanyl found in the toxicology, they’re incredibly surprised by it,” she said. “For so long, we understood fentanyl to be a hospital-distributed drug used for cancer patients, for example, but now we’re seeing it so easily manufactured on the street and it’s made so cheaply, so inexpensive.

“Now it’s being mixed with all these other drugs that we see, and so it’s everywhere.”

Since the presence of fentanyl has increased across the country, many organizations have turned to implementing training with naloxone or other antidotes to drug overdoses.

The county’s Public Health Department has provided naloxone training for schools, the Sunset Empire Transportation District and others in an effort to save lives and educate about the dangers of the drug. The department distributed more than 2,000 doses of the medication across the county in 2022, Patty Jo Angelini, a county spokeswoman, said.

Angelini said the county is working with local hospitals and emergency responders to address the problem collaboratively. The county has also teamed with Columbia and Tillamook counties to develop a fentanyl awareness campaign — Fentanyl Aware Northwest.

“I don’t think that people realize this is a hundred times more powerful than morphine, 50 times more powerful than heroin,” DeVisser said. “We see that but we don’t really understand what that means.”