Woman suspected to be city’s eighth fatal overdose of 2019

LACONIA — A 41-year-old woman who died Monday night in the Blueberry Lane area is believed to be the city’s eighth fatal overdose this year, police Chief Matt Canfield said Tuesday.

“She was already deceased by the time officers arrived,” Canfield said. “It was a suspected overdose. We won’t know for sure until tests are done, but we’re pretty confident that’s what it was.”

Last year, there were 109 overdoses in Laconia, 12 of them fatal. Through November of this year, the city had 53 total overdoses.

As of Dec. 5, there were 284 confirmed drug deaths in the state — the vast majority caused by opioids — and another 80 deaths still under toxicological investigation, according to the New Hampshire Medical Examiner’s office. There were 471 drug deaths across the state last year and 490 in 2017.

Manchester led the state in fatal overdoses through Dec. 5 with 61 confirmed and 11 pending toxicological testing. Nashua was second with 23 and six, followed by Rochester with 12 and four, Concord with 11 and one, Seabrook with seven and three and Dover with seven and one.

Canfield welcomed this year’s reduced number of fatal overdoses in Laconia, but said it’s hard to pinpoint the cause of the decline.

Among the possible explanations he cites are more awareness about the deadly danger of fentanyl-laced heroin, increased use of methamphetamine, widespread availability of overdose-reversing Narcan and the effectiveness of drug enforcement, treatment and education efforts.

“Certainly we’ve seen a rise in meth use, there’s a lot more meth,” Canfield said. “It could be supply and demand. Meth is cheaper and there are poly drug users who take heroin to bring them down and meth to bring them up.”

While meth use is physically debilitating and very dangerous, it is less likely to result in an immediate fatal overdose compared to opioids.

Eric Adams is the Laconia Police Department’s drug enforcement, treatment and prevention officer.

This year, Lakes Region General Hospital opened “The Doorway,” one of nine hubs across the state for people to better access substance use services.

“I like to be hopeful that the services Eric Adams does and the outreach as well as the new hub have had an impact on the reduction of the overdose numbers,” Canfield said.