United States Drug Enforcement Administration

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office (KCMEO) reported that deaths caused by drugs increased to their highest levels in 2016 in King County, Washington. Methamphetamine was responsible for 109 (30 percent) of the 360 drug deaths according to KCMEO data. DEA reporting indicates that the methamphetamine responsible for the overdose deaths was produced in Mexico and smuggled across the Southwest Border (SWB) to the Pacific Northwest. Recently, methamphetamine users have begun combining the drug with heroin—a combination that has led to a substantial increase in deaths in King County—according to an analysis of KCMEO data.