According to preliminary coroner data, fatal drug overdoses climbed to at least 400 last year, a 6 percent increase from 2014 – and a nearly 63 percent jump compared with 2005, when the number stood at 246. The latest figures punctuate a problem that has rapidly multiplied inOrange County and the U.S. In the past five years, drug overdoses have killed 1,769 people in the county. The coroner’s office has cases awaiting toxicology results, so the 400 figure could rise. More tha

Aimee Dunkle will tell her story to anyone who will listen — it's a story filled with the heartache of a mother who lost her 20-year-old son, Ben, to a heroin overdose. "The big thing was the shock that somebody like him could die," she said. "They just didn't expect it." Ben, a surf instructor who grew up in Orange County, was 50 days sober until the day he got out of recovery and started using drugs again. Eight days later, he was dead. Now, Aimee's wondering what would hav