A heat map released by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office shows where people in the county are overdosing.
FREEHOLD - Authorities say a heat map displaying where Monmouth County's 164 overdose deaths took place in 2016 offer a grim visual that illustrates how the heroin and opioid epidemic is not isolated to one location.
"What we are seeing is the opioid and heroin epidemic doesn't discriminate," Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said in a phone interview.
Regardless of location, age, race and income level, people in Monmouth County are dying - and at a rate that has authorities concerned the fight is an uphill battle.
"I'd love to tell you we're winning this and we'll solve it in the next couple years," Gramiccioni said, "but I can't tell you that. There's still a lot of work to be done."
The silver lining, he said, is that the community is engaged in the issue. And they are starting to realize that the days of drug use being just an inner-city issue are gone.
The proof is in the numbers.
In 2016, Asbury Park only had four overdose deaths and Red Bank had two, compared to 14 in Middletown and 10 in Eatontown. Neptune Township had 14 overdose deaths, while Long Branch saw 11 and Keansburg had 14. Wall Township had nine overdose deaths, while Aberdeen/Cliffwood Beach and Howell each had seven. All other communities had five or less.
These numbers could increase as more toxicology reports from the end of 2016 come in, Gramiccioni said.
Gramiccioni said the so-called heat maps are a bit of a misnomer because they just show where people died and the areas with the highest number of overdose deaths tend to be more populous and where people congregate.
Still, the county has seen an upward trend of overdose deaths in recent years.
In 2012, there were 88 overdose deaths in Monmouth County. That figure dipped slightly in 2013 before jumping to 104 in 2014, and then 122 the following year.
So far in 2017, the county has seen 12 overdose deaths as of Wednesday.
It seems there continued to be a flat if not upward trend when you extrapolate this over a five-year period," Gramiccioni said.
He said authorities are working with the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Medical Examiner's Office and other health officials to figure out why the northeast coastal communities are "disproportionately impacted" when compared to the rest of the state.
Meanwhile, the future outlook is bleak. Authorities continue to grapple with the rise of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is far more potent than heroin and is often mixed in with heroin bags. And the fact that fentanyl is cheaper and deadlier than heroin has Gramiccioni concerned it can take over the drug market.
"Overtime, it could be the next year, it could be the next three years, the heroin market will get phased out for cheaper fentanyl," he said.
This map shows where Narcan deployments in Monmouth County in 2016. (Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office) Naloxone, an antidote that helps reverse the effects of an overdose, has given law enforcement a much-needed option to help save lives. Gramiccioni said the county has seen a 90-percent success rate on overdose reversals using Naloxone, commonly referred to as Narcan.
But users overdosing from fentanyl often have to be sprayed with Narcan two or three times, he said. Essentially, the effects of the overdose are outlasting the Narcan.
"It's a constant battle for us," Gramiccioni said, "and we're trying lots of different things and combinations of different ideas and initiatives. But, unfortunately, none of them have resulted in a substantial downgrade in the number of deaths we're experiencing."
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.