Recently released numbers show that the negative effects of fentanyl use remain on the rise in Northeast Tennessee, after an initial spike in 2019 that has not yet slowed.
Sullivan County Sessions Judge James Goodwin told News Channel 11 that fentanyl is connected to “at least 85 to 90% of our cases in some way. Either seeking drugs, using drugs, dealing drugs – the thefts that go along with drug use, the burglaries, all that.”
According to the data, fentanyl overdose deaths are almost five times higher than they were in 2018.
In 2018, a fentanyl-related overdose death occurred about once a week in the region. By 2021, they were occurring four or five times each week.
