Opioid overdose deaths have soared 300% in Cook County in seven years
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Narcan is the nasal spray that treats narcotic overdoses – it saves thousands of lives a year.
But with so many Americans addicted to opioids, Narcan is no match for the epidemic that is hitting a grim new milestone around Chicago.
It was one week ago while on a story on an unrelated topic on the West Side, Matthew McFarland revived a man overdosing on fentanyl-laced heroin right in front of our cameras.
The man came to, and McFarland - once an addict himself - marked his 50th assist.
In the week since that happened, McFarland said he has stepped into action with Narcan for overdoses again.
McFarland is not an EMT, but people seek him out when they spot trouble. And in Cook County, there's plenty of it.
Over the last seven years, opioid overdose deaths have soared nearly 300 percent in Cook County.
In 2022, for the very first time, there were 2,000 deaths.
"I see more and more people in their 50s – my age – that are looking for heroin and street drugs, because their doctor cut them off from their pain medications," McFarland said.
Of all deaths, 27 percent are people in their 50s, while 17 percent are people in their 60s.
Joel Watts, 12, was the youngest person to overdose on opioids in Cook County last year. "Cuco" to his family, Watts died in their Fernwood neighborhood home with a combination of ethanol and fentanyl in his system.
The oldest overdose death was an 84-year-old woman from the Sauganash neighborhood, who died at Swedish Hospital in June.
"I'm surprised to look at the numbers that not everything was fentanyl-related, but you know, almost everything; every death is fentanyl-related," McFarland said.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office says 91 percent of overdose cases involved fentanyl added to the product to make it more profitable.
"The more of that you cut it with, the more money you make," McFarland said, "and so it's not the intention to kill user, you know, the buyer. The intention is to make more money – and unfortunately, more and more people die."
A total of 78 percent of the opioid overdoses are men, while 70 percent of the Cook County deaths were in Chicago.