Motivated by the drug overdose deaths of five people in Statesboro since Jan. 1 among a total of eight known overdose cases here in three months, the Statesboro Police Department has begun distributing a fentanyl facts and overdose response laminated card.

The "Facts about Fentanyl" side of the card notes that 64,000 of the record 100,000 U.S. overdose deaths in a 12-month period, from April 2020 to April 2021, were attributed to the powerful synthetic opioid. It also includes a list of the signs of overdosing.

The other side lists five steps to take if you think someone is overdosing and features a "Recovery is Possible" message, which notes that Narcan, a nasal spray brand of the overdose intervention drug naloxone, is available to the public through the local nonprofit organization Freedom Through Recovery. At bottom, there's a "Don't run, call 911!" paragraph quoting the text of Georgia's overdose-related Good Samaritan Law, which bars arrests and prosecutions for drug violations discovered solely because someone called for medical assistance.

"We're not encouraging the use of illegal drugs, we just want people to stay as safe as possible, and we really want to encourage people to get into treatment," said Statesboro Police Chief Mike Broadhead. "You know, we'd rather they get naloxone than not; we'd rather they get into treatment than need naloxone."

He had announced plans for the cards in mid-March, when the total of overdose incidents in Statesboro known to police this year had reached seven in 10 weeks — equaling the total for all of 2022 — and the number of overdose deaths had already reached five — one more than in all of last year.

Then, from mid-March to mid-April, the Statesboro Police Department learned of at least one more overdose.

"I'm aware of one more incident, but the person was given naloxone and they survived," Broadhead said.

Although not certain in every instance, police suspect that fentanyl was the culprit drug in all of the overdoses. But none of the overdose victims are known to have been intentionally using fentanyl.

"I can't say 100%, because who knows what's going on in people's minds, but generally speaking, I would say that none of these people were intentionally ingesting fentanyl," Broadhead said.

Killer in disguise

Said to be about 100 times more potent than the same amount of most other opioid drugs, fentanyl is used as a pain reliever in controlled medical settings, such as for cancer patients and people recovering from surgery. But when it appears illegally on the street it is often mixed with other opioids, such as diluted heroin, as a cheap way to enhance their effects. 

In Statesboro and the surrounding area, heroin is relatively uncommon, and fentanyl is more commonly seen pressed into pill form, posing as abused prescription drugs such as Vicodin (hydrocodone) or OxyContin (oxycodone), Broadhead said.

Statesboro police are not aware of any local manufacturing of fentanyl and have not made any recent supply-side arrests, he acknowledges. 

"We think most of it's international, honestly," he said. "We think most of the fentanyl and illegal opiates are coming from the Far East; most of the pill making, we think, is happening in Mexico."

From there, these illegal, and often deadly, pills often travel through Atlanta to Statesboro.

"We continue to do what we do, which is we use our narcotics detection dogs to try to find it when it's in transit, we use undercover operations to try to stop the dealer, and then we try to encourage users to get into treatment," Broadhead said.

Card distribution

All Statesboro police officers already carry Narcan and receive training to use it, which he notes is fairly easy since it's a nasal spray. Now officers will also be receiving the information cards to distribute strategically to the public.

"We're going to distribute them to the officers to carry with them so they can hand them to family members, they can hand them to people that they feel just might benefit from seeing the information, and we're going to have them at a few locations," Broadhead said.

One of those will be the Freedom Through Recovery: Susan Ford Recovery Community Organization headquarters, 226 S. Zetterower Ave. Some pharmacies may also carry the cards, he said.

Breaking the stigma

The logo of Freedom Through Recovery, established here in 2018, appears on the back of the new information cards, along with the Statesboro Police Department badge emblem. Sydney Hardee, Freedom Through Recovery vice executive director, said she appreciates the Police Department's showing of support as the nonprofit organization strives "to break the stigma that surrounds substance use disorder and to build recovery-friendly communities."

"It's not only vital for our community to know about the dangers of fentanyl, but I think the police showing their support in this is bridging that gap between recovery and substance use and the Police Department," Hardee said. "So often people in either their active addiction or in recovery have this fear of the police because they've gotten in trouble so many times. So when we see the support of the Police Department, it breaks down those barriers."

Also a recovery coach who cites her own "lived experience of recovery from substance abuse" as a qualification, Hardee has experienced, she notes, a lot of personal loss surrounding the opioid crisis. Her husband died of an overdose in 2019, and her stepson, who had just turned 17, died of an overdose last May. Both of their deaths were fentanyl-related.

"I use that pain to bring me purpose, and part of my purpose is bringing awareness about overdoses," she said. 

Freedom Through Recovery receives Narcan free through the Georgia Overdose Prevention Team and makes it available to the public. No prescription or stated reason is required.

"My main goal is to get it into the hands of those who are high-risk or the people who are close to those at high risk, but I also encourage — like, I keep some in my car, because you never know when you're going to need it," Hardee said.

But Broadhead said people need to realize that the overdose-counteracting drug "isn't magic."

"We certainly are not encouraging people to get naloxone and then feel like they can freely use or abuse. But it does exist as a safety measure. … ," he said. "It is a temporary block of the opioid receptors in the brain. Sometimes it takes two or three doses, and typically when somebody gets a dose of naloxone, they still need to be seen by a physician, they still need to get to a doctor."

The card states that if you think someone is overdosing, Step 1 is "Call 911 immediately," and Step 2 is "Administer naloxone if available."