A state law created in 2018 allows for a 20- to 40-year prison sentence if convicted of dealing a controlled substance, such as fentanyl, that results in death.

Sessions touted Project Safe Neighborhoods, an effort to target the highest crime areas in the country, which includes a recent focus in Indianapolis and Evansville.

The county recently saw its 49th confirmed opioid-related death for 2017. There were 44 opioid-related deaths in 2016 and 42 in 2015.

The study also shows that Indiana's reports don't reflect the actual number of overdose deaths in which opioid drugs are present.

Jennings County Sheriff Gary Driver says Tuesday's overdoses sent deputies racing from home to home across the county to administer an anti-overdose drug to victims.

Heroin and fentanyl overdoses more than doubled between 2014 and 2015 in Indianapolis, and the use of the opioid overdose antidote Narcan is on a record pace this year.