ST. MARYS, Ga. — The Drug Enforcement Administration and Georgia Bureau of Investigation are looking into a deadly string of overdoses in Camden County.
At least ten people have overdosed on drugs, ending in one death, in the county since last Friday. The GBI said there haven’t been any additional overdoses in three days.
Local law enforcement, including the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management, and St. Marys Police Department all posted urgent messages throughout the weekend urging residents not to use recreational drugs, including marijuana.
The GBI told Action News Jax it believes the overdoses are linked to a bad batch of drugs laced with fentanyl.
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Fentanyl is an opioid for severe pain that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine.
“Unfortunately it’s not shocking — because we hear about this kind of thing quite frequently. It’s sad. It’s very sad,” Sally Finn, the executive director of Drug Free Duval, said.
She added that overdoses are up, some due to fentanyl, because of the pandemic.
“The support systems that were in place and were accessible were no longer, or less accessible because of the pandemic,” she said.
According to data from Jacksonville Fire & Rescue, first responders went to 327 overdoses in May of 2019. At the height of the lockdown, in May of 2020, there was a 50% increase in overdoses at 492.
That number dipped slightly in May of 2021 to 462.
JFRD reports hundreds of doses of Narcan were used, and many lives saved. Drug Free Duval offers a free one-hour Narcan training class virtually on the 15th and 30th of every month. The non-profit also offers free Narcan kits for everyone who completes the session.
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“That along with calling 911 and staying with the person is critical,” Finn said. “It’s actually a very easy way to be prepared in the case of coming across somebody who has overdosed.”
Since the program’s inception in December 2019, the organization reports, at least 28 lives have been saved.
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