More and more deaths are being blamed on drug overdoes. Elliot Pinsly, President & CEO of the Behavioral Health Foundation, told WGNS NEWS... Unknowingly, users are buying drugs on the street that contain a lethal amount of fentanyl. The DEA reports that fentanyl is being mixed-in with other illicit drugs to increase the potency of the drug, which is sometimes sold as powders and nasal sprays. The Drug Enforcement Administration says that fentanyl is similar to morphine, but about 100 times more potent.

Fake pills are a part of the growing problem of overdoses in Rutherford County and throughout the country. Law enforcement agencies nationwide have reported a massive increase in fentanyl being pressed into pills, made to look like legitimate prescription opioids. Reports indicate four out of every ten pills sold on the street, contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, according to DEA lab testing.

Getting to the root of why so many people turn to drugs is one way to help solve the ongoing drug epidemic. However, getting to the root of why someone started using is not an easy task, because the root of the problem is all-to-often embedded in a users' childhood. Compounding problems, some children who were physically abused grow into adulthood with the belief that they caused the abuse...

While everyone experiences different levels of trauma throughout their life, some traumatic events are much worse than others... Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD is the end result of trauma, which introduces another level of complexity to problems like addiction.

Adding another piece to the puzzle, the past COVID Pandemic has not helped the ongoing drug problem. By the end of 2020, the CDC confirmed that drug overdose deaths nationwide were the highest ever recorded in a 12-month period.  In addition to the increase of opioid related deaths, overdose deaths involving cocaine also climbed by 26.5 percent during the Pandemic, according to the CDC.

To learn more about the Behavioral Health Foundation, visit them online at “BehavioralHealthFoundation.org.” If you are battling thoughts of self harm, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.

Hear the recent interview with Elliot Pinsly on WGNS - HERE.