MPD has issued a “Safety Alert” due to fentanyl deaths on the rise in Memphis. Police said the increase is due to fake pills being sold on the street, or online. Counterfeit Oxycodone and Percocet pills are sold and likely contain Fentanyl. These are also called M-30, V48, and A215 pills and can be found in white powders, police said. …

Bakersfield Police Chief Greg Terry was in KGET’s studios Wednesday renewing the warnings we’ve been hearing about the deadly illicit opioid fentanyl. Have we been heeding those warnings? The numbers say no, not nearly enough. But then addiction is a powerful thing. It must be. How else do we explain the killer in our midst that – despite persistently dire …

A 14-month-old toddler is recovering at a North Carolina hospital after a suspected fentanyl overdose, Monroe police said Wednesday. On Tuesday, officers executed a search warrant at a home in the 1000 block of South Church Street in the Union County city, police said. Following the search, police arrested and charged 29-year-old Tyler Shelton Perry with felony child abuse, trafficking …

With the first months of school now behind us and young people more used to re-engaging with their peers, it’s a good time to have an open and honest conversation with our kids about fentanyl. This powerful synthetic drug has changed the landscape of drug use in our region. In 2015, just three people died from a fentanyl-related overdose in …

Overdose deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl “sharply” increased in Western, Southern and Midwestern states between 2019 and 2020, according to a Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) study published Tuesday. The research determined that fentanyl-related overdose fatalities surpassed 1,800 in Western states in the second half of last year, amid the coronavirus pandemic. This amounts to an almost 94 percent …

Three people have been indicted after a 28-year-old man died from a drug overdose in a Murfreesboro apartment earlier this year. Murfreesboro police reported Walter “Tommy” Bowen, 42, of Smyrna, Travis Stanley, 29, of Murfreesboro, and Madison Davis, 25, of Murfreesboro, were served the indictments on Nov. 24. All three were already in custody at the Rutherford County Adult Detention …

Gov. Bill Lee will deploy Tennessee National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border in early 2022. The state will send 50 guardsmen to support the Texas National Guard and “address drug trafficking,” Lee said in a news release.  The release cites U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, which show agents have seized 190,000 pounds of methamphetamine and 11,000 pounds of fentanyl …

Three people were taken to a hospital and a student is in custody after a vape pen laced with fentanyl was found at Sequoyah High School Tuesday, a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said. Two student resource officers confiscated a vape pen after being called to remove a 17-year-old student from a classroom. A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said …

Fentanyl is low-cost and highly potent. On the street, it’s being mixed with drugs like meth and heroin to increase profits, but it’s also made its way into the recreational market disguised as pills. A 22-year-old woman stepped off a plane at Nashville International Airport on a cold January day, hoping to make $1,000.  Her task was simple: Deliver the two suitcases …

More than 100,000 people died over a 12-month period from fatal drug overdoses for the first time in U.S. history, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. “To all those families who have mourned a loved one and to all those people who are facing addiction or are in recovery: you are in our hearts,” …