Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, was the leading cause of drug-related deaths in Florida and in Palm Beach County in 2018.
A synthetic opioid up to 100 times more potent than morphine was the leading cause of drug-related deaths in Palm Beach County and Florida last year.
Fentanyl killed 278 people in Palm Beach County in 2018, the most of anywhere in the state, according to a report released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Medical Examiners Commission.
In all, 2,348 people in Florida died because of the drug.
While drug deaths went down overall between 2017 and 2018 — including those caused by other drugs like heroin, hydrocodone and fentanyl analogs — fentanyl deaths in Florida grew by 35 percent, or 605 people.