Spike in overdoses sparks local concern

It's an ongoing crisis that's continuing to spread across st.

Joseph and the rest of the country, and no we're not talking about covid-19, while the pandemic has been dominating the headlines, locally attention is turning back to the opioid epidemic as it's continuing to claim lives here in st.

Joseph.

Kq2's ron johnson spoke with the head of a local organization who shares some sobering statistics.

<<ron johnson reportingas of friday, since march the 1st we've had 28 documented overdoses in st.

Joe.mark puckett, the co-founder of the st.

Kolbe puckett center for healing has made waves on social media this weekend after sharing some startling numberswe had six overdoses in one night, we lost two people this week.he says his organization has seen a recent spike in overdoses locally and that one specifically potent drug is to blame staff reached out to me and they said hey, do you know what's going on and i'm like, well i'm sure it's fentenyl.puckett says the dangerously lethal drug fentanyl is likely starting to spread here at home, something he says he was warning people about for a year nowfentanyl is on it's way in and when it comes in, it's gonna come in with a vengeance.a key player in the fight against drug overdose deaths has been narcan, the drug that can reverse overdose effects but puckett says not much is widely known about how to get it.

Anybody can walk into a pharmacy and buy narcan you do not have to have a prescription to buy it.

It's $138 for two doses, most people can't readily afford that.

The spike in overdoses in town has sent puckett into action, he wants to get the community to together to keep everyone informed about the epidemic we're just gonna fly by the seat of our pants but we're going to try to get more information out to the public.

While at the same time making sure the public understands addiction and the role we can all play to help save livesyou know, there's a lot more that goes along with addiction than just taking a pill or using a needleit's time to step up take our community back save lives and stop judging people puckett says the st.

Kolbe- puckett center for healing has narcan avaliable for those in need.

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