Mercy Health, Mahoning County Public Health and other substance use and recovery agencies in Mahoning County are coming together to warn the Valley of an overdose risk related to Cocaine and Methamphetamine contaminated with Fentanyl and circulating the community.

This drug combination is causing a significant number of overdoses and deaths. 

"It is imperative the community stay vigilant and be mindful of overdose death signs such as someone looking extremely pale, feeling clammy to the touch or having purple or blue colored fingernails or lips," said Dr. John Soboro, head addiction medicine services physician for Mercy Health.

According to Dr. Soboro, additional signs include vomiting, if someone can't be woken up or speak or if someone's breathing or heart rate has slowed or stopped.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, some drug dealers will mix fentanyl with cocaine, heroin, MDMA and methamphetamine and more because it takes very little to produce a high, which makes it a cheaper option.

However, these drugs can be very risky, as the people taking them may not know it contains fentanyl and may unknowingly suffer an opiate overdose.

According to data collected by Mahoning County Public Health, statistics show a significant increase in Fentanyl contamination over the first four months of 2022 compared to the previous two years.

To help prevent an opiate overdose, it's recommended to never use drugs alone and to carry naxolone, a medication that can reverse an overdose by blocking the effects of opioids on the brain quickly restoring breathing.

If naxolone is given to someone with no opioids in their system, it causes no harm. To obtain a kit for yourself, click here.

In addition, Mercy Health Youngstown offers addiction and peer recovery support services including intensive outpatient programs, Buprenorphine and lon-acting injectable prescriptions administered with monitoring by a psychiatrist or addictionologist and access to peer supporters with their own recovery experience.