An official government website.
Fatal Drug Overdose Spike Investigation
October 31, 2022
Butler County General Health District Fatal Drug Overdose Spike Investigation
The Butler County General Health District was made aware this weekend of a significant increase being seen in suspected fatal overdoses having occurred last week (October 24 - October 30). The 8 suspected fatal overdoses exceeded both the constant spike threshold of 7 and the weekly Exponential Weighted Moving Average Analysis 4.0 standard deviation threshold of 7.04.
The report, linked above, gives an overview of the weekly suspected fatal overdoses leading up to the spike and also breaks down the cases observed by day. Six of the eight suspected fatal overdose cases happened to occur on Saturday October 29, 2022 all between 14:00 and 22:00. Additionally, 4 of these 6 incidents occurred within the City of Hamilton jurisdiction indicating that the spike seemed to be more concentrated in that area with possibly more lethal substances being present in that particular location of the county.
As well, it is also noteworthy that 3 of the 6 Saturday cases happened to involve Hispanic individuals. In all of 2021 Butler County only observed 4 suspected fatalities involving individuals who identified as being Hispanic. This is a concerning development as it could indicate individuals who use drugs among this community may have received a highly more lethal batch of illicit substances, or that more individuals in this community may be experimenting with substance use.
The short time range for when these suspected fatalities occurred on Saturday also indicates that it could have been one specific batch of substances or source that became available that night and was then pushed into the community where people then began overdosing from it. Toxicology information is not available yet for these cases so no definitive conclusions can be drawn about the specific substance contributing to fatality at this time.
As well, it is also noteworthy that 3 of the 6 Saturday cases happened to involve Hispanic individuals. In all of 2021 Butler County only observed 4 suspected fatalities involving individuals who identified as being Hispanic. This is a concerning development as it could indicate individuals who use drugs among this community may have received a highly more lethal batch of illicit substances, or that more individuals in this community may be experimenting with substance use.
The short time range for when these suspected fatalities occurred on Saturday also indicates that it could have been one specific batch of substances or source that became available that night and was then pushed into the community where people then began overdosing from it. Toxicology information is not available yet for these cases so no definitive conclusions can be drawn about the specific substance contributing to fatality at this time.