Jesse Bennett is the statewide overdose prevention coordinator for the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition. “It’s not that it’s lethal. It’s lethal in the dosage it’s taken. So heroin is lethal if you take enough dosage of it, any opioid is,” said Bennett. He believes the increase in deaths is due to dealers misleading users. “So what happens is, individuals don’t realize they have fentanyl mixed in with their heroin,” said Bennett. New data from the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office shows in 2016, 543 people died from fentanyl. In just one year the number more than doubled to 1,252. They even provide addicts with free drug paraphernalia including syringes, cookers, and fentanyl testing strips. By law, they can legally give these items out and the people who receive it will not face prosecution. “So what we’ve seen is they are able to test their drugs before they inject them,” said Bennett. “Then if it comes up positive for fentanyl then they can say ‘maybe I should just do a test shot ... maybe I should not do this at all ... maybe I should have someone here in case of an overdose’.” “If somebody could have been monitoring his use, it would have saved him the day that he was alone, “ explained Anne Sporn.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) - Newly released numbers reveal an alarming increase in North Carolinians dying from a new kind of drug. It’s easier to get your hands on than heroin and it’s proving to be much more lethal. Now, one group is using an unconventional method to stop the problem. For one North Carolina mother, she believes this method may have saved her son’s life. “There’s a hole ... that will be there forever,” said Anne Sporn about her son. Sam Sporn was a bright-eyed, happy young boy until addiction gripped his life. His mother Anne Sporn says he started smoking marijuana in high school, which led to heroin. “By the time my husband and I figured out what was going on we really were kind of in the throes of big-time heroin addiction,” Anne Sporn said. They took him to rehab in the fall of 2014 and he went back to college months later. But while at school he relapsed. “He died in the bathroom of his dorm room. It was locked. He was all alone and they had to beat down the door,” stated the mother.
Sam Sporn is just one of many people who’ve died of a heroin overdose in North Carolina.
While new numbers from the North Carolina Medical Examiner show heroin deaths decreased slightly from 2016 to 2017, a new threat is emerging. Fentanyl is now claiming more lives. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it’s cheaper and easier to obtain than heroin.
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