The fight against the drug epidemic, a continuing battle

State officials say overdose deaths are trending downward

(ABC 36 News Now) — It’s an ongoing fight, that continues to cause concern, but some state officials say numbers for drug overdoses in the state have decreased.
But an Amethyst Recovery report claims that Kentucky is sixth in the nation with most fatal drug overdoses.

Those helping to combat the drug epidemic in the Lexington are encouraging people to know about the effects certain drugs will have on the body.

“If it hadn’t come from a doctor and a prescribed prescription, I would not trust it, not trust anything on the street from friends and so forth,” says Lieutenant Corey Doane with the Lexington Police Department.

Adding that although overdose deaths are trending downward, “we are optimistic that some some things are showing a trending down slightly. And we’ll take that, we don’t celebrate it, because there are still a lot of families that have lost loved ones to this fentanyl and other substances. But we are seeing a big community involvement,” he adds.

Meantime, in Madison County Coroner Jimmy Cornelison says he has also seen in a decrease in overdose deaths.

“In the past last year, I had 69, and in the year before that I had 69. Right now I’m at 15, added Cornelison.

Cornelison believes the numbers are going down for a variety of reasons, including, “you kill somebody, we’re going to come after you. We’re going to do everything we can to exhaust every avenue that we can to put you in jail for manslaughter at a minimum. I think the availability of Narcan, probably, you know, everybody’s got Narcan, and it makes a difference,” said Cornelison.

Adding that the biggest problem continues to be fentanyl.

“Fentanyl, though, as my instructor told me when I was in paramedic class is the ‘mack daddy,’ that’s the way it was described. Because you can use it transdermal, it is a great drug, it is a great drug for people in pain, that can’t get out of pain,” he also says.

Cornelison says the problem is, some people do need it to monitor their pain, it is not a drug that can just be removed.
He says many times overdoses happen because those using will create a cocktail of drugs.

“You’re taking a depressant, and an amphetamine at the same time, and your heart says, what do you want me to do, speed up or slow down, I’ll just take a break, and they die,” he explained.

According to the fatality report of 2022 in Kentucky, 90% of overdose deaths involved opioids.

Kentucky says they have tried to offer more clinical care for those suffering from addiction to try to curb the problem, meantime Lexington Police believes partnerships will help with the problem.
Something that those in Madison county agree with, “we as a society need to reach out and help those people, if we can, if they want help, if they want help,” added Cornelison.

Those with Lexington Police say if you see something, say something you can contact Bluegrass Crime Stoppers and you can do so anonymously.