Spartanburg County Fentanyl deaths on the rise – News – GoUpstate

Fentanyl-related deaths reported in Spartanburg County have more than doubled in two years.

The potent opioid killed more than twice as many people in 2018 than in 2016, and about 65-percent more people than in 2017, according to the Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office’s annual report.

The report, released this month, listed 38 fatal Fentanyl overdoses in Spartanburg County last year, versus 23 in 2017 and 18 in 2016.

The drug, which the Drug Enforcement Agency said is 80 to 100-times stronger than morphine, accounted for close to half of Spartanburg County’s 81 reported overdose deaths.

Overall, there were 12 more reported drug overdose deaths in 2018 over 2017.

“The numbers are hard to imagine,” the report read. “Our community is plagued with opioid addiction, and people are dying as a result.”

Sue O’Brien, executive director of Spartanburg’s Forrester Center for Behavioral Health, said the increased rate of Fentanyl-related deaths is disheartening, but not surprising. The strength of the drug makes it particularly deadly, with users often overestimating how much they can take.

She said drug dealers frequently cut it with other drugs as a cheap way to boost potency and deepen addictions.

“There’s people who get cocaine or meth, and they don’t think they’re getting Fentanyl, but it’s included in there, and then they have an overdose on an opiate,” she said. “You don’t know what’s in it when you’re buying it off of the street.”

O’Brien said she and the staff at the Forrester Center, along with public officials, have been working tirelessly to stem the tide of the epidemic in the county through education, treatment and programs targeted at removing prescription drugs from circulation. They’ve seen seen their share of success stories, she said, but progress is slow.

Josh Kingsmore, administrative manager of Spartanburg County EMS, said first responders have seen a significant uptick in overdose calls in recent years. According to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, paramedics administered the anti-overdose drug naloxone, often referred to by the brand name Narcan, 544 times in 2017, as opposed to 454 in 2016.

“We continuously respond to these overdose calls,” he said. “We’ve run overdoses since EMS has been around, but now the overdoses are often related to Fentanyl or other opioids.”

O’Brien said the stigma surrounding addiction has contributed to the severity of the epidemic in South Carolina and around the country. Changing the way the problem is discussed and perceived is an essential part of reversing the deadly trend, she said.

“There’s ongoing myths, that have been going on since the dawn of time, saying, ‘You did this to yourself so therefore you don’t deserve the same kind of intervention that someone with, say, diabetes would need,’” she said. “…Any addiction, and opiate addiction in particular, is very much a brain disease.”