Drug overdoses in the US and GTR are being attributed to fentanyl
It's not only addictive; it's also powerful, but a very small amount can also trigger an overdose.
LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – An increasing amount of drug overdoses in the United States and here in the Golden Triangle are now being attributed to fentanyl.
It’s not only addictive; it’s also powerful, but a very small amount can also trigger an overdose.
Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said the United States makes up only 5% of the world’s population. But the United States consumes 99% of the drugs manufactured in the world.
One of the most dangerous is Fentanyl, and many people don’t even know they’re taking it.
Fentanyl is a legally produced drug designed to manage pain, but when not used properly it can also be addictive, causing many people to misuse it.
Captain Shannon Murphy with the Columbus Fire Department said he has been on several cases of what they believe were fentanyl-related emergencies.
He said the drug can suppress the respiratory system leading to death.
“We carry Narcan on our fire apparatus,” Murphy said. “Narcan reverses the effects of the opioid. The other thing we can do is provide rescue breathing so that hopefully they can return to a normal state.”
Hawkins has over 25 years of experience working with Narcotics, and he said the potency of fentanyl increases the chances of an overdose.
“This drug is 100 times more powerful than morphine would be,” Hawkins said. “It can absorb through your skin. If we inhale that drug the officers or deputies searching these cars and finding these drugs can get an overdose just by being exposed. Heroin dealers want to market their product and they lace it with fentanyl and it on the street. They lace it with fentanyl, they lace it with fentanyl and someone uses heroin and they overdose. Now all the users say, they got the good stuff, I wanna go over there and get the good stuff.”
The Director of The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Steven Maxwell says the illicit drug market has become flooded with fentanyl, and almost any drug one gets could be laced with it.
“We are advising all Mississippians not to ingest or consume pills or anything they believe to be a medication unless they obtain that from a pharmacy by way of prescription,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell said the best way to handle this is to educate the public on the dangers that come with using a drug you don’t get from a doctor, and 2.5 milligrams is the lethal dose for 95% of the population.
“In today’s drug culture, what you think you’re purchasing could be something else,” Maxwell said. “Your last experience of a breath could be a result of ingesting something you believe to be a pharmaceutical drug or an illicit drug you’ve used many times in the past, and it’s not, it’s laced with fentanyl and that could be your death.”
According to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, just this year we’ve had 125 drug-related overdose deaths and roughly 70% have been associated with fentanyl.
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