Carroll County Health Department Raising Awareness For Fight Against Opioid Crisis
CARROLL COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) -- The fight against the opioid epidemic continues in Maryland.
The Carroll County Health Department is answering the call with an overdose alert.
Just outside the Carroll County Health Department is a 60-foot sign listing the overdose stats in 2019, 532 of them.
In the last 48 hours, there were 11 more. It's unclear if any were deadly, but now Carroll County is announcing an overdose alert, focusing on one of the most deadly opponents - fentanyl.
"Dealing with heroin, the drugs weren't quite as deadly. When we started seeing fentanyl in the drugs, it's become more of a problem. Our last two deaths included something called zylozene which is an animal type tranquilizer," Ed Singer, of the Carroll County Health Department, said.
Reports from drugabuse.gov say from 2012 to 2017, the number of deaths in Maryland involving synthetic opioids went from 52 to over 1,500.
Singer says the overdose threshold varies in different places, but in Carroll County, the number is five. The 11 overdoses are alarming, and that's why they chose to make an announcement.
"It's fair to say the entire country is in a state of crisis. This is a national problem. It crosses all sectors. It's not a rule problem. It's not an urban problem. We have just as much of a problem up here in Carroll County as there is in Baltimore City," Singer said.
Now the race is on to keep the numbers on this outside the Health Department as they are, as they continue to save lives in the streets.