FRANKFORT, Ky. — Deaths from drug overdoses continue to grow in Kentucky and, according to one man on the front lines of the drug epidemic, the increased number of deaths are having the opposite effect than one would expect.

Increasingly, heroin dealers are lacing their product with fentanyl and carfentanyl, substances 30 to 100 times more powerful than heroin, which has led to more overdose deaths, according to an annual report by the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy.

While one might think drug users would avoid dealers whose customers overdose on such drugs — but the opposite is sometimes the case, according to Robert Mott, the Madison County Drug Task Force Commander.

“The users find out a dealer is selling stuff that’s making people overdose, and it makes all the other users go to him, too, because they know they’ve got high-powered stuff,” Mott said.

“We ask people all the time, ‘Why would you go to that dealer when you know it killed three or four people?’” Mott explained. “And they say, ‘Because it’s the best stuff.’”

Users do not always know if their drugs contains fentanyl or carfentanyl, which adds to the overdose problem.

“Users have no way of knowing what drugs they are taking, and even the smallest amounts (of fentanyl or carfentanyl) can trigger a lethal reaction,” said Van Ingram, executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Policy.

According to the latest state report, there were 1,404 overdose deaths in Kentucky in 2016, a 7.4 percent increase over 2015. Fentanyl contributed to nearly half of them, a factor in 623 overdose deaths compared to 459 the year before.

Mott said law enforcement is increasing its efforts and getting better at them — but the problem is growing even faster: “You’ve got more people dying all the time.”

Still, he’s not discouraged or at least not discouraged enough to give up.

“You can’t quit because it’s killing our folks,” he said.

Mott knows when the task force efforts are working. After arrests of a group of sellers, often parts of organized groups originating in Detroit, Chicago or Dayton, “you see the price go up and it’s harder to purchase it, and you get some satisfaction.”

Until the next group of sellers arrives to fill the temporary vacuum.

Mott acknowledges that “we can’t arrest our way out of the problem.” He says it’s going to take a holistic approach between law enforcement, the medical community, treatment and education. He supports Madison County’s needle exchange program, for instance, something he said he once thought he would never do, because it cuts down on blood-borne diseases and reduces the likelihood of needle wounds for his officers.

It’s no longer just the problem of the poor or the under classes, either. Drug addiction increasingly infects every income and education level, though the general public may yet not recognize its scope..

Those most likely to be affected, according to state data, are those between the ages of 35 and 44. More than 400 in that age range succumbed to overdoses in 2016 in Kentucky.

“These are mothers and fathers, veterans, co-workers and friends,” said Kentucky Justice Cabinet Secretary John Tilley. “We are in a daily battle to reach them before we lose them, and we must continue tapping every available resource to confront this problem with both force and compassion.”