PORT ANGELES — Clallam County ranks among the top three counties in Washington state with the highest overdose death rates, recording 59.3 deaths per 100,000 residents from June 2023 to June 2024. This rate places Clallam just behind King County, with 62.2 deaths per 100,000, and Grays Harbor, which leads with 77.6.

Clallam County Prosecutor and Coroner Mark Nichols says the data highlights the significant impact of the opioid crisis in Clallam County.

“My sense is that were probably sitting in about 27 fatal drug overdoses for the first six months of 2024. That puts us on track to have something closer to 45 46, maybe 47 by year’s End and that would be essentially neck and neck with the record from last year. This would be a second very high year for Clallam County. Suffice to say that’s a crisis level challenge for our county to contend with,” Nichols told Newsradio KONP’s Todd Ortloff Show.

Nichols says fentanyl is a part of the problem, but there’s more.

“Among other findings, Clallam County; as a rural Washington County; continues to stand out as having a disproportionate number of fatal overdose deaths with alcohol involved. We have an awful lot of ethanol showing up in people’s blood or urine in the aftermath of their demise, much more so than we’re seeing in other small and rural counties around the state. The only counties that seemed to compare to Clallam County with respect to ethanol showing up in tox screens are larger counties like Clark or King for example,” said Nichols.

Clallam dropped from the second highest overdose rate per capita last year at this time.