Aug 15, 2016 2 min read

The number of drug-related deaths in Washington County more than doubled last year, according to a recent report that also points to the rates of fatal overdoses in Southwestern Pennsylvania as the highest of any region in the state.

For local officials in Washington and Greene counties, the report, released last week by the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association, underscores prescription painkillers as a contributing factor to the surging number of overdose deaths in the area.

The group said the 3,505 drug fatalities across the state last year represented a 30 percent increase from 2014, when it counted 2,489.

“Most deaths are the result of multiple prescription drugs either alone or with the addition of heroin or cocaine, to a lesser degree,” the report stated.

The report puts drug deaths in Washington County at 73 in 2015, compared to 33 the year before.

The group also said the number of deaths involving heroin accompanied by the more potent fentanyl or acetyl fentanyl, both synthetic opioids, also increased.

“We’re pretty much where everybody else is in Southwestern Pennsylvania, because we have a population that’s a bit older and there’s a lot of opioid medication,” said Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone.

Heroin was at least one of the drugs involved in 38 of the deaths in Washington County last yer, according to information from the county coroner’s office. Most deaths involved at least one other drug.

With an average of 32.9 drug-related deaths per 100,000 people, the 11 counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania had more overdose deaths per capita than any other region in the state. The statewide average was 27.4.

Washington reported 35.1 drug-related deaths per 100,000 people last year, In Greene, the number was even higher, with 37.3 per 100,000 people.

Greene reported 10 deaths in 2014 and 14 in 2015.

In Greene County last year, 35 percent of drug-related deaths involved someone in their 50s or 60s, according to the report.

“That’s where I fall back on, this is not the young college kid who’s going out and partying,” said Greene County Coroner Gregory Rohanna. “My interpretation of what I’m seeing is prescription drug abuse.”

The coroners association cautioned that data and demographic information it obtained from individual counties and compiled in the report “may be missing or flawed from certain counties which will alter the outcome of various totals to a certain degree.”