The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced on Friday that two more Delawareans have died from overdosing on fentanyl-laced heroin.
Toxicology reports confirmed the deaths, one on April 2 in Millsboro and the other in Claymont on April 5.
Eight people have died from overdoses this year from fentanyl-laced heroin, three in Sussex County and five in New Castle County. The deaths involved six men and two women, ranging in age from 28 to 58.
Fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller that’s 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin. The drug is commonly mixed with heroin to produce a more powerful high.
Fentanyl-laced heroin has been responsible for dozens of overdoses already this year across the U.S.
Philadelphia alone counted for 28 of those deaths in March and April.
The eight deaths in Delaware this year surpasses the seven confirmed during the last outbreak of fentanyl-tainted heroin overdoses in 2006.