Preliminary information from the Iowa Department of Public Health shows a 35-percent increase in opioid overdose deaths in 2020 when compared to 2019.  The director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, Dale Woolery says some of the factors in the increase in death include the mixing of black-market fentanyl into heroin by drug dealers.

The 212 overdose deaths in 2020 broke the record of 206 deaths set in 2017.