Communities across the United States have continued to see increases in fentanyl use and overdoses, and the City of Gainesville is no different, according to Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parrish.
The drug is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Speaking Wednesday afternoon on WDUN's Drive at 5, Parrish said this highly dangerous drug led to 84 deaths within the City of Gainesville in 2021. That number jumped to 98 in 2022.
"150 U.S. citizens a day are dying of fentanyl overdoses across the country," Parrish said. "That's over 54,000 a year, which is more than car wrecks, it's more than cancer for ages 18 to 45. It's the number one killer of people 18 to 45."
When looking through the past several decades of drug use, Parrish said fentanyl is "the most deadly thing we have witnessed."
Fentanyl comes in two types, according to the CDC: pharmaceutical fentanyl and illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Pharmaceutical fentanyl is prescribed by doctors to treat severe pain, especially after surgery and for advanced-stage cancer.
However, the main problem for communities across the country stems from illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
"It is often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive, and more dangerous," the CDC website reads.
Parrish said many illegal drug users could find themselves in a dangerous situation due to fentanyl's use as an additive to other illegal drugs. Specifically, he said many drug users are unaware that the other illegal drugs they are using could have been laced with fentanyl.
"A deadly amount of fentanyl, if you put it on a penny, for most adults would not cover Abraham Lincoln's head," Parrish said.
Fentanyl is primarily made outside of the United States, then smuggled into the country, according to Parrish. He said the rapid expansion of the drug in the region came about around the end of 2019 and into 2020.
When it comes to preventing the perseverance of the drug within Gainesville, Parrish described their efforts as a "war plan."
"We understand that fentanyl use, drug use for many of these is a substance abuse disorder, so we have to treat the patient," Parrish said. "We are administering Narcan, and as soon as we get some of these patients back online, it's immediately pairing them up with local peer coaches through J's Place or the Northeast Georgia Health System to try to get them help and fight their addiction. I think we've learned that in most cases, incarcerating a user doesn't really stop the problem. That doesn't mean they don't go to jail for it, but we certainly try to reach them and get them help, and then kill the supply chain."
Parrish's comments follow a recent report from the Georgia Department of Public Health, in which they identified a possible fentanyl cluster in Gainesville.
You can listen to the full interview from WDUN's Drive at 5 with Caleb Hutchins at the above Soundcloud player.
