“This is unprecedented to see as many alerts as we’ve seen in the last six days.” In less than a week, 174 overdosed in Cincinnati. During same few days, there were spikes in New Jersey, Indiana, and Kentucky. Now there’s an urgent search for the specific batch of drugs that’s creating the problem.

+ A Hamilton County coroner thinks she may have found a clue in a drug called carfentanil: “The drug is a mega-potent opioid, intended for animals including elephants. The carfentanil now on the streets as heroin has been largely manufactured overseas, narcotics agents say, shipped to Mexico or Canada and moved to other locales such as Ohio.”

+ Boston Globe Magazine: 10 things I wish I’d known before my daughter became addicted to heroin.