BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — Blount County law enforcement goes full force against the drug epidemic and authorities are rolling out new strategies to combat illegal drugs.
BCSO said in 2021 the county reached an all-time overdose high with more than 390 overdoses and 64 deaths. In 2022, the numbers dropped to 261 overdoses with 52 deaths.
Ryan Desmond, the Blount County attorney general, said there is a strategy in place.
"Blount County really is no different than a lot of East Tennessee over the last decade, there has been a large influx of opioid trafficking," Desmond said. "Our drug task force consists of the district attorney's office, our sheriff's office and our two city police departments, the city of Maribel in the city of Alcoa. It is a collaboration between all four of those agencies."
Ron Talbott, the sheriff's office deputy chief, said they plan to move into a bigger space and hope for in-house testing for drugs.
A device called the MX nano offers a presumptive test. Talbott said the normal procedure would be if you had a substance or a drug that you had seized or come across, they would send it to TBI's crime lab.
What this device does is allow them to identify the substance immediately.
"You can also use the last in crime scenes," Talbott said. "You can swab devices, you can swap countertops, you can swap phones and it'll tell you if those trace amounts are on those devices or those locations. So while you're processing crime scenes, you can use the device."
While this could be faster prosecutions as they detect those substances and trace amounts, the DA said a bigger building means new and better technology. They also said they would build a real crime center that would help them prevent crime instead of waiting for it to happen.
"Where you can have traffic cameras, or security cameras from local businesses that opt into this, for instance, in Walmart or a local business wanted to give the law enforcement access to their security cameras, they could in real-time watch inside these businesses what's going on," Desmond said.
Desmond said the drug epidemic affects all economic spectrums, all socio-economic spectrums, it affects everyone. He often receives calls from very affluent parents who are worried about their children and has received calls from parents from lower economic systems.
"There is no hiding from it," Desmond said.
Their goal is to prepare the next generation and educate them.
Talbott and Desmond said it's a team effort that includes many agencies, organizations, churches and the whole community.
"You will not be slapped on the wrist," Desmond said. "If you're going to bring drugs that are going to kill our children and kill our community members. You're going to face the most dire of consequences when you are caught."