Nassau Communities With The Most Opioid-Related Deaths

The heroin crisis is nothing new for Long Island communities. But new statistics released by Nassau County shed a sobering light on just how many people have died and which communities are being hardest hit.

According to the county, from 2012 through 2015, there were 671 confirmed deaths attributed to heroin or prescription pain pill overdoses. The number of deaths attributed to opioids has been increasing year over year. In 2017, there were 177 deaths attributed to opioid overdoses. Last year, it was 195. There have already been 68 confirmed opioid-related deaths through June of this year.

But those deaths are not evenly distributed. Some communities in Nassau are hit much harder than others. The county released data showing how many people died in different communities for 2015, 2016 and the first half of 2017.

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Leading the list for all three years was Massapequa/Massapequa Park/North Massapequa. The combined communities had 10 deaths in 2015, 14 in 2016 and has already had nine this year.

"Education and awareness are key to battling this public health crisis," said County Executive Ed Mangano. "Overdose deaths continue to occur each year in nearly every Nassau community. Knowledge is power. Together, we can find solutions."

Fentanyl — an opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin — is has become the most deadly drug in Nassau County, statistics show. In 2012, there were three deaths in the county from Fentanyl overdoses. Last year, there were 81. Fentanyl has overtaken heroin as the leading cause of opioid-related deaths since 2015. So far this year, county statistics show, there have been 15 overdoses from heroin and 32 from Fentanyl.

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Officials are taking the drug threat seriously. County, state and federal law enforcement have been combating heroin and Fentanyl trafficking at every turn. There have been dozens of arrests made this year, with hundreds of thousands of doses of drugs taken off the streets.

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