BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — The CDC is tracking an increase in overdose deaths attributed to fentanyl, and the powerful drug has claimed lives across the Carolinas.
Nationwide, the CDC said the number of overdose deaths from fentanyl is accelerating.
Channel 9 reporter Dave Faherty visited Burke County where deputies and first responders are fielding more overdose calls every day -- some from people who aren’t even aware they’ve taken the drug. Deputies said that’s because the fentanyl has been mixed with other drugs and pressed into pills.
It’s so dangerous that officers said they now wear thicker gloves when handling the drug.
The numbers in Burke County are staggering.
During a single week earlier this month, deputies responded to 16 overdoses -- two of them fatal.
Just north, in Caldwell County, authorities have also seen an increase in overdoses, seizing 9 pounds of fentanyl pills (around 36,000 pills) after a traffic stop in Granite Falls last month. Channel 9 was told some of the drugs were hidden under the hood of the car.
That fentanyl bust had a street value in excess of a million dollars.
“Most concerning is pills,” said Burke County Sheriff Steve Whisenant. “Fentanyl pills are being made to look like other prescription drugs.”
Dave spoke to Dorraine Hernandez, a mother who tragically lost her daughter to an overdose.
“Try to get people to understand how dangerous it is and that it just takes a tiny bit of fentanyl in any kind of pill you may take,” she said.
The sheriff told Channel 9 that Burke County is on track to have more than 800 overdoses this year.
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