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Only on 11: Ohio Attorney General talks heroin problem at Bowling Green BCI lab

A new drug trend has increased the number of heroin overdoses in the state of Ohio so far this year. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is working to spread the message that the trend has to stop.

BOWLING GREEN, OH (Toledo News Now) - A new drug trend has increased the number of heroin overdoses in the state of Ohio so far this year. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is working to spread the message that the trend has to stop.

He spoke exclusively to WTOL about that message when he visited the BCI lab in Bowling Green.

The trend involves mixing heroin with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

“They don't know what they're getting, they don't know what they're using, and they think that it'll just make them high,” DeWine said. “And then they end up dead.”

Scientists at the BCI lab say they've seen the deadly combination a lot recently. The lab has dealt with 69 fentanyl-related cases so far this year, which is as many as it saw for the entire year of 2014.

“The problem is that fentanyl is 15-20 times more potent, more dangerous, in essence, than heroin, and so that leads to a lot of deaths and it leads to a great deal of tragedy,” DeWine said.

DeWine says many dealers are cutting their heroin with fentanyl to sell it more easily, but users don't realize how easily it can kill them.

“What they're selling is a better high, but what happens is this ‘better high' sometimes turns into the last high that the person will ever achieve,” he said.

The attorney general says they're always cracking down on drug dealers, but it seems that whenever they take some down, others surface. He says the heroin unit is working to get to the heart of the problem.

“The real goal has to be to get further up the food chain, get the bigger dealers and go after them,” DeWine said.

He says dealers who are caught can face very serious charges.

If you or someone you know is dealing with a drug addiction, help is available. Visit the

Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services website here

for more information.

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