Image Credit: DEA & canva
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
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.
Goodwin stated that he regularly dismisses cases in which the defendant is deceased from a drug overdose.
“Those orders are coming at an increasing number,” Goodwin said.
While not every overdose results in death, the other problems that come with fentanyl use are plentiful.
The number of drug seizures in Northeast Tennessee that were sent to TBI Crime Lab in the first 8 months of 2024 was more than 10 times the number sent in all of 2019.
Statewide data shows that emergency room visits for overdose increased by 74%, going from 4,039 visiting the hospital in 2018 to 7,048 in 2021.
“So I don’t think we’ve hit the plateau yet,” said Goodwin.
A DEA report from 2019 states China is the “primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”
A DEA graphic shows that India is also a supplier with most of the points of distribution to the United States being located in Mexico.
