BATON ROUGE - LSU sophomore Eli Thomas, a proud member of the Tiger Band, died this week of an apparent overdose.

The beaming saxophonist is now another statistic in the East Baton Rouge coroner's ledger.

"Year to date, we are at 242 overdoses in the parish. So if we kind of project things and look at the trajectory, one overdose a day till the end of the year puts us at about 300 overdoses," EBR Coroner Dr. Beau Clark said.

Clark has been following overdose deaths for a decade now, particularly from fentanyl.

"We would be hard-pressed in East Baton Rouge Parish to find drugs such as cocaine, meth, and marijuana that is not laced with fentanyl."

Clark says it's becoming commonplace for people to unintentionally consume fentanyl.

"Because it's becoming more readily available in these other drugs, now someone who has never abused an opioid, never abused fentanyl, thinks that they're purchasing meth or cocaine or whatever it may be and all of a sudden it's laced with fentanyl."

And it's increasingly deadly to unsuspecting teens and young adults.

"Because of that, you may have someone that's younger, a little bit more naive, college-aged student who thinks, 'I got an Adderall pill and I need that to help me study,'" Clark explained. "Well, all of a sudden it's not an Adderall pill. It's a pressed fentanyl pill and you overdose and you die."

Though it doesn't address the core of the problem, one solution Clark suggests is having Narcan on hand. An overdose-reversing drug you can purchase from your pharmacist.

"Part of the solution to these overdoses is to make sure that Narcan is readily available for people to utilize and not have to wait even the few seconds to minutes that it takes a first responder to get there when it can be used by a bystander."

Follow the link below to watch WBRZ's half-hour special taking an in-depth look at the fentanyl crisis.