I am writing to inform the public of an alarming spike in the number of drug overdose deaths involving illegal narcotic and opiate drugs in St. John Parish.

Autopsy statistics show that in 2014 and 2015 there were three deaths each year due to accidental overdose from opiate drugs.

In 2016 the death toll increased to six for the year, and in the first six months of 2017 we already have six confirmed overdose deaths with another suspicious case pending autopsy results as of this writing.

This pace represents a 100 percent increase in drug overdose deaths in back to back years of 2016 and 2017.

Thus the national opioid epidemic has arrived in St. John Parish.

The source of these drugs in all of these cases appears to be from illegal black market sources and not from legitimate doctor prescriptions.

Heroin and Fentanyl have been identified as the causes found at autopsy with Fentanyl 100 times more potent than heroin and much more lethal.

Fentanyl has been used by drug dealers to “cut” heroin, adding to it to stretch the amount of heroin that can be sold while adding an extra level “drug high.”

However, if too much fentanyl is added, it causes respiratory depression and instant death due to a stoppage of breathing.

Fentanyl has been the cause of large outbreaks of overdose deaths recently in the Midwestern U.S. and Georgia.

A variation of it is used as an elephant tranquilizer.

Fentanyl has been imported into this country illegally from foreign countries, especially China, Canada and Mexico. It could be purchased openly in China without a prescription until February of this year, when it became a controlled substance, and especially anonymously on the Internet through the “Dark Web.”

It can also be easily manufactured by drug cartels in make-shift labs by purchasing the raw ingredients overseas and then smuggling the finished product into the United States for sale.

It is now sold in liquid or capsule form, which can be taken orally and is especially lethal.

Detection by law enforcement has been difficult, especially due to illicit internet online marketplaces, which have operated with anonymous buyers and sellers.

Earlier this month two of the largest online marketplaces for criminal goods were shut down in a global operation involving the U.S. and several foreign countries.

These sites allegedly serviced some 200,000 users and 40,000 vendors with transactions valued at about $450 million over the past two years.

Hopefully this is the start of slowing the flow of this lethal drug into our country and reversing the opioid epidemic.

Christy A. Montegut, M.D., is the St. John the Baptist Parish coroner. His office can be reached at 985-652-3344.