By Stephen Stirling | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
More than 2,200 people died from drug overdoses in New Jersey in 2016, the third consecutive year the state has reached an all-time high in the grim and growing toll.
The state released its finalized drug-related death figures last week, showing a nearly 40 percent increase in the death toll from the prior year as the opioid crisis surges on. The rise in 2016 was likely propelled by fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has become ubiquitous in New Jersey's drug trade in recent years.
Newly-minted Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced last week he was creating a new office specifically to battle the scourge of opioids in the state, which killed more than 65,000 nationally last year.
"The opioid crisis is unprecedented in its scope and devastating in its intensity, and our response must be equally broad in scope and intensity," Grewal said.
Fentanyl and heroin drive the bus
Data shows that opioids were involved in at least 1,900 of the deaths last year, or about 85 percent.
Much of this can be attributed to the rise of fentanyl, which can be upwards of 50 times as powerful as heroin. The synthetic opioid, which is easy to manufacture and transport, has become ubiquitous in New Jersey. Fentanyl was found in the bloodstream of more than 800 people who died of drug overdoses in 2016, up from 42 four years prior.
Cocaine has also made a resurgence and has been found alongside opioids in hundreds of cases in New Jersey in 2016.