VENANGO CO., Pa. (EYT) — While carfentanil is showing up in a growing number of cities across Pennsylvania, law enforcement officials in Venango County haven’t seen any use of it, yet.

Oil City Police Chief Bob Wenner said his department hasn’t seen any evidence of carfentanil in the county.

“I have no information of it being in the county,” Wenner said. “We haven’t heard from confidential informants of its use or seen any instances of its use.”

“I’d be very happy if it passes us by,” Wenner said.

Wenner said, “It is possible that it’s been used in the county, but if someone used Narcan to reverse an overdose and didn’t report it or didn’t have to be hospitalized, we wouldn’t know.”

Wenner said the overdoses in the county seem to be running at about the same numbers as 2016.

“Again, we may not know everything that has happened if people are using Narcan.”

Recently, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the arrests of six men in Allegheny County for selling $750,000 worth of carfentanil, fentanyl, and heroin during the last year.

According to a published story on pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/11/09/carfentanyl-seizure-allegheny-county/, it is the first known seizure of carfentanil by the Office of Attorney General in Allegheny County.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, carfentanil is used as a tranquilizer for large animals, such as elephants, and is 10,000 times more potent than morphine.

Even accidentally inhaling the substance or absorbing it through the skin can cause death.

A Crawford County person’s death in May was ruled to be due to a carfentanil overdose after toxicology reports.

In October, the death of a one-year-old girl from McKees Rocks, Allegheny County, was ruled accidental due to exposure to carfentanil.

According to wjactv.com, the coroner in Cambria County believes it is likely a 69-year-old woman died after absorbing a substance through her skin or had some sort of reaction to the paraphernalia after handling it when she was cleaning up her son’s drug materials after he overdosed November 5.

The mother died on November 6, and her son died November 7.

The coroner is waiting on toxicology reports on both.

According to a pennlive.com story, the death of a York man in June was ruled to be due to carfentanil toxicity after extensive lab tests were performed.

Other deaths in southeastern Pa. counties, such as Montgomery and Chester, have occurred earlier this year.

According to a published article on www.timesonline.com/news/20171116/aliquippa-man-sentenced-in-carfentanil-death, a man from Aliquippa was sentenced to serve time in state prison for providing carfentanil to a woman who died in November of 2016.

While carfentanil is showing up in toxicology reports in 2017, fentanyl, heroin, benzodiazepines, cocaine, and prescription opioids are still the biggest causes of drug overdose deaths in Pennsylvania last year.

According to a report at www.overdosefreepa.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DEA-Analysis-of-Overdose-Deaths-in-Pennsylvania-2016.pd_-1.pdf, there were 2,386 deaths attributed to fentanyl, fentanyl-related substances and non-prescription synthetic opioids in 2016.

There were 2,089 overdose deaths attributed to heroin, while benzodiazepines were related to 1,541 deaths, cocaine was attributed to 1,257 deaths, 1,181 for prescription opioids and 917 for ethanol.