The Sangamon County coroner is expressing concern over a large number of deaths linked to drug overdoses.
Coroner Cinda Edwards, in a live interview Monday on 970 WMAY, says 38 people in the county have died of drug-related causes in the past year, the single biggest non-natural cause of death in that time.
She says 30 deaths have been directly linked to opiates with only four linked to cocaine, two from overdosing on an anti-depression medication and two from drinking anti-freeze.
Edwards says a changeover to a new computerized record-keeping system has prevented her from making a year-to-year comparison so far, but says the sheer number of such cases is reason to be alarmed and to remind people of the dangers of substance abuse.
