Fatal overdoses on heroin and cocaine laced with the prescription painkiller fentanyl helped push drug-related deaths in the Detroit area up 19 percent between 2005 and 2006, the Associated Press reported Jan. 26.

In 2006, 542 drug-related deaths were reported by the Wayne County Department of Health and Human Services, up from 457 in 2005. Fentanyl accounted for at least 178 of the deaths reported in 2006.

The prescription painkiller -- cheaper than heroin and more potent than morphine -- was linked to overdose deaths across the U.S. last year. Many addicts unwittingly injected other drugs cut with fentanyl and died of rapid respiratory failure. "A powder pretty much looks like a powder," said Wayne County health spokesperson Teresa Blossom. "There were drug users that didn't realize they were using a product that had fentanyl. There were drug dealers that did not realize that they were selling a product laced with fentanyl."

County mental-health director Michele Reid referred to the fentanyl-related deaths as "a mass poisoning," and local officials have established a multiagency working group to address the fentanyl problem.