When Cayuga County Coroner Dr. Adam Duckett broke down the area's 24 overdose deaths last year by the drugs that were involved, he expected to see heroin at the top of the list.
It wasn't. In fact, Duckett told The Citizen Monday, more of those 24 people had cocaine in their systems than the opioid at the forefront of the local drug epidemic of the last decade.
But the reason for that is another drug, one that was also in the systems of most of the people who fatally overdosed after using cocaine or heroin in Cayuga County last year: fentanyl.
According to Duckett's data, 18 of the 24 overdose deaths last year involved fentanyl. Eight involved cocaine, six involved heroin, five involved benzodiazepines, two involved molly and two involved the tranquilizer xylazine. Most involved two or more drugs, but fentanyl was the sole cause of two. All but one involving heroin also involved fentanyl, and all eight involving cocaine also involved fentanyl.Â