Fatal fentanyl overdoses surged in 2017

Fentanyl patch packages from German generic drug manufacturers. Wikimedia Commons photo
Vermont saw a spike last year in deaths involving the powerful painkiller fentanyl, emphasizing the danger of a synthetic drug that is at least 50 times more potent than heroin.
There were 68 fatal overdoses attributable at least in part to fentanyl in 2017, an increase of 33 percent from the year prior. The number of deaths involving a combination of fentanyl and heroin also rose.
Those statistics are featur