Chattanooga Police warned of four overdose deaths in 24 hours, pointing to a batch of especially dangerous drugs.
Investigators here in Knoxville say they have not yet seen an uptick in the number of overdose deaths here in Knoxville. Still, the number of times first responders save the lives of overdose victims is staggering.
In the first four months of 2019, Knoxville firefighters have raced to try and save overdose victims 200 times. KFD administered Narcan 140 times from January through April, saving lives each time. In 2018, they responded to more than 700 overdoses.
"Anytime you’re seeing numbers like that, you know that there’s a problem. It’s not just here in Knoxville, it’s nationwide," said Captain DJ Corcoran with the Knoxville Fire Department. "There are times that somebody is experiencing such a severe overdose that sometimes the Narcan that we administer is enough to bring them down but we have to shoot them again with Narcan."
The overdose death task force in Knoxville is busier than ever. Sgt. Joshua Shaffer with KPD has more cases than they can keep up with.
"You have to have it every day, you have to have it multiple times a day, and you’ll get it at whatever cost that is," said Shaffer. "The batches of dope, the batches of heroin that are often most dangerous are referred to as the good batches by the drug addicts and the drug dealers."
Director David Rausch with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says Fentanyl submissions to the crime lab have gone up 36% across the state this year.
"When you take a look at these numbers, it’s devastating," said Rausch. "The drug that’s killing the majority of people is Fentanyl and analogs of Fentanyl. We’ve seen those submissions steadily grow. This year alone we are looking at over 1,300 submissions."
With stronger drugs, the need for more life saving drugs like naloxone is growing. The Metro Drug Coalition is working to put the overdose reversal drug in everyone’s hands.
"Depending on the drug, the stronger the drug is, you could have multiple doses of naloxone that have to be delivered to the person," said Deb Crouse with Metro Drug Coalition. "Every life matters. No matter if someone is saved once or saved ten times, it’s someone’s life."
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is establishing overdose death task forces across the state to help trace the drugs from victims to the dealers who sold them. Those will be based off the task force started here about two years ago.