Overdose deaths down in Kentucky, up in Warren County

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-Kentucky state officials are reporting the first statewide drop in drug overdose deaths since 2013, but in Warren County drug related deaths continue to rise.

A new report released Thursday by the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, shows a little more than 13-hundred people died by overdose in 2018. That’s down nearly 15% from the record set in 2017.

The decline was by far the largest in at least a decade, according to state officials.

The report points to education and treatment programs along with other reduction efforts as factors in the lower death toll.

In Warren County, according to the Deputy Director of the Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force, the drug issue isn’t getting much better. He said they’ve had to double down on their efforts.