Lewis County on Track to Surpass Last Year’s Drug Overdose Death Total

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Between a growing population and the increased potency and presence of opioids and other drugs, the area’s death toll from overdoses is already on track to outpace 2022.

In Lewis County two years ago, there were 20 fatal overdoses and 64 non-fatal hospitalizations due to drug overdoses, according to a new Washington Department of Health dashboard showing drug overdose data throughout the state, along with county-specific data.

Last year, there were 26 fatal overdoses in the county, the coroner reported. 

As of May 2 this year, Lewis County has already seen 14 drug-related or direct drug deaths, more than half of 2022’s total after just four full months, Coroner Warren McLeod reported last week.

The state’s dashboard shows opioids caused more lethal overdoses than other drugs. The prevalence of opioid is increasing here, too, McLeod shared in a meeting earlier this year, but methamphetamine remained the top drug overdose causer from 2020 to 2022.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, is commonly mixed with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine and made to resemble other prescription opioids, according to information released by the CDC.



McLeod recently reported fentanyl’s presence is growing “fast” in Lewis County. Officials are also bracing for a new trending drug, according to Emergency Management Deputy Director Ross McDowell, in a presentation to the Chehalis Rotary last March.

Xylazine, commonly known as “Tranq” or “Frankenstein,” he said, is a veterinary tranquilizer that, especially on the eastern end of the U.S., is being mixed in with heroin, fentanyl and other drugs. The substance causes what McDowell referred to as “zombie” symptoms.

No xylazine deaths have been reported in Lewis County yet.

So far this year, the county has seen 300 deaths total, including one with an undetermined cause, three homicides, six where cause of death is pending, 10 suicides, 18 accidental deaths (including the 14 overdoses) and 262 natural deaths.

The coroner’s monthly update also included information on a new bill set to be signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee establishing a tuition reimbursement fund for forensic pathologists, because there has been a shortage of them in the state, McLeod said.