Officials released some sobering facts at a public health advisory council meeting Friday morning at the Cheshire County

Officials released some sobering facts at a public health advisory council meeting Friday morning at the Cheshire County House of Corrections in Keene.

The biggest was that the substance misuse problem, most of which involves opiates, in the state — the one dominating today's headlines and last election's stump speeches — isn't new. It's just getting more lethal.

James Vara, an adviser on Addiction and Behavioral Health for the office of governor and a member of Friday's panel of experts, said the opioid crisis started 12 years ago. Back then, prescription pills were to blame for most overdoses, he said. In 2012, Vara said a major number of the overdoses were heroin-related. Then fentanyl was to blame. Now, there’s an even more potent drug, carfentanil.

Each drug has been more potent than the last. And it's killing New Hampshire residents at a record pace.

In 2016, there was a spike in opioid-related deaths that reached about 400. Vara said each of those deaths can be attributed to a combination of heroin and fentanyl, or straight fentanyl.

Vara said carfentanil, the latest drug to show up in the state, is used as a large game tranquilizer, is 100 times more potent than fentanyl.

“A great fear I have is certainly that we’ll see more of this,” said Vara on Friday. “… People will be dying everywhere.”

The panel also said that according to a recent poll, 53 percent of New Hampshire residents believe opioid addiction is the top problem facing the state.

How many more people will we have to lose before that number is 100 percent?

We need to admit this: The problem is here throughout our region from Antrim to Rindge and from Wilton to Dublin. This wasn’t a forum in Massachusetts or Vermont. This was one in the Monadnock region. Nonprofit organizations based locally, like Monadnock Community Hospital’s Be the Change Task Force, were involved in the event.

It’s time.

Time to speak up for people trying to make a difference in the fight against opioid addiction. Time to speak out against politicians who threaten to cut funding in this fight.

Time to speak up before an overdose or addiction affects a person you love.