Heroin Deaths Skyrocketing in Connecticut

By Rich Scinto (Patch Staff)

Connecticut continues to fight a difficult battle against opiate addiction that has plagued residents of all socioeconomic backgrounds and locations.

The state took a number of steps in 2015, including establishing a narcotic prescription database to deter doctor-shopping addicts, allowing pharmacists to prescribe the anti-overdose drug naloxone and encouraging equipping police with naloxone.

Several local police departments, as well as State Police, have been trained and equipped to use Naloxone, which is also known as Narcan.

Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that can reverse the respiratory depression that can occur during an overdose. It can buy valuable time for someone on the verge of death to be transported to a hospital for further treatment.

Trumbull Police have been equipped and trained to use Naloxone. Officers have successfully deployed the drug on a number of occasions during 2015.

Patch will update this story again in 2016 as more data becomes available.

Updated stats

Heroin, morphine and/or codeine detected:

2012: 195

2013: 284

2014: 325

2015 (Jan.-June): 173

2015 (projected from Jan.-June statistics): 346

Heroin in any death:

2012: 174

2013: 257

2014: 325

2015 (Jan.-June): 163

2015 (projected from Jan.-June statistics): 326

(Editor’s Note: Here is the original story we published last year, which provides an in-depth review that tracks the cases of opiate deaths in the state and in your local communities for 2014, which is the last full year the data is available.)