CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- (CLARKSVILLENOW) According to the organization TN Together, 29 overdose deaths were reported in Montgomery County in 2016 and 15 of those were due to opioids.
As of 2016, Tennessee is one of the top three opioid dispensing states based on pill count. Governor Bill Haslam released a comprehensive plan this week to battle the epidemic.
The Montgomery County Health Department, Montgomery County Government, and the Montgomery County Veterans Coalition hosted an Opioid Education Event on January 23, 2018.
A panel was present to answer questions about how opioids are affecting the Montgomery County community. The panel included Tommy Farmer from Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Montgomery County EMS Chief Jimmie Edwards, and other local law and health officials in the community.
“Within the last 30 days we have administered the reversal agent for opioid overdose 65 times here in Montgomery County,” Edwards said.
He said that while the number of deaths due to opioid overdoses has decreased, the number of opioid overdose incidents has not. “Last year we administered 422 doses of Naloxone and in 2017 we administered 712 doses,” Edwards said.
Tommy Farmer provided a demonstration about how fentanyl overdoes are occurring when they are mixed with other substances. He used a bag of sugar to represent any substance that can be mixed with the fentanyl, which was represented by a small sweetener packet. Farmer explained that drug dealers now only need one kilo of fentanyl to equal the effects of ten kilos of heroin.
“Fentanyl is so popular because it can be diluted so much more than heroin, which equals more profit and a much stronger product,” Farmer said.
He said that dealers will then blend the drug with the other substance to make the drug look pure and consistent. Just a tiny amount of fentanyl present in this mixture can cause an overdose.
“It is not a matter of if, it is only a matter of when you are going to overdose,” Farmer said.
The panel at the educational event presented more statistics from the area in the hope of finding solutions to combat this growing problem in our community.
For more information about how opioids in Tennessee and TN Together visit TN Togther’s website.