DeKalb County authorities have tied 34 overdose deaths during the last three years to fentanyl, the short-acting pain reliever that killed the singer and songwriter Prince in April.
Meanwhile, the number of people dying from fentanyl-related overdoses — prescription and illegal — has more than quadrupled over the last three years across Georgia, from 64 to 257, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of medical examiner reports. More than half of those deaths happened in the Atlanta area last year.
In March, President Barack Obama appeared at a summit in Atlanta to bring attention to the nationwide painkiller and heroin overdose epidemic that killed more than 28,000 people in 2014, more than any year on record. Obama noted that more people are now killed from drug overdoses than traffic accidents.
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