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North Carolina Sees Nation's Second Highest Surge In Opioid Deaths

This June, 2018 file photo shows syringes of the opioid painkiller fentanyl from an inpatient pharmacy. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

A new report shows North Carolina has the nation's second highest increase in opioid deaths. 

A study from the Centers For Disease Control estimates that just over 2,500 people in North Carolina overdosed on opioids and other drugs in 2017. That's a nearly 22 percent increase from the year before.

The CDC says that of those overdoses, nearly 2,300 deaths were reported, but that number is expected to rise due in part to autopsy delays. 

Public officials tell the News and Observer that the rise is due in part to the rapid spread of synthetic fentanyl, which is cheaper and more potent than heroin.

The black market is also seeing a spike in fentanyl “analogues," which are drugs created to imitate the effects of fentanyl. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services says there are at least 42 types of these copycat drugs on the market, many of which are being mixed in with heroin, cocaine and other painkillers.

The skyrocketing pace of drug overdoses in North Carolina mirrors a national trend. The state with the steepest rise in overdose deaths in 2017 was Nebraska, with a nearly 33 percent increase.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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