In a lonely motel room an hour south of Nashville, Anna Bradburn tells me she desperately wants to live. And yet every few hours she takes a huge risk, she does something so dangerous it has killed 100,000 Americans over the last year. She knows she is dicing with death several times a day. Anna takes fentanyl, the synthetic drug which …

As the coronavirus pandemic dominated government priorities and the public consciousness, Tennessee quietly recorded more than 3,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2020 – the deadliest year ever. Fatal overdoses, most of which involved fentanyl or similar synthetic opioids, rose more than 44% in 2020, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths spiked nationwide but grew more …

It’s the epidemic you may have heard little about in 2020, but we now know drug overdoses claimed more than 93,000 lives that year. The Centers for Disease Control says this increase of nearly 30 percent from the year before is the highest number of deaths in twelve months. It’s also the largest increase since 1999. Trevor Henderson is the …

More than 93,000 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. last year — a record number that reflects a rise of nearly 30% from 2019, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials said the increase was driven by the lethal prevalence of fentanyl as well as pandemic-related stressors and problems in accessing care. …

The man responsible for providing a Tullahoma teen with the fentanyl that caused his death has pleaded guilty and received a 12-year prison sentence for his crime, law enforcement officials announced. Hunter Gremillion, 24, of Tullahoma, pleaded guilty to Aggravated Assault Resulting in Death in Coffee County Circuit Court before Judge Vanessa Jackson, resulting in a 12-year stint in the …

A traffic stop by Hawkins County investigators led to the discovery of methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and ecstasy. The Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office says it received information Wednesday that a vehicle with Georgia registration would be delivering a large amount of illegal drugs to Timberline Drive in Rogersville. The sheriff’s office narcotics unit spotted the vehicle and pulled it over around …

Two-time drug overdose survivor Polly Jessen, a Kingsport, Tennessee, native, now dedicates her time to helping others battling drug addiction at Frontier Health. Jessen’s addiction to opiates began after her mother died from breast cancer, she recently told the Bristol Herald Courier. She was barely 18 years old and was already abusing alcohol and marijuana. “I eventually discovered my mother’s …

The District Attorney General released a report Thursday on overdose deaths and the criminal justice system in 2020. District Attorney General Charme Allen released a report about fatal overdoses and the criminal justice system on Thursday, finding that 76 people died within one year of being released from law enforcement. In total, in 2020, the report says 150 people who …

On July 1, 2021, Katrina S. Carinci, 28, of Knoxville, TN, was sentenced to 125 months imprisonment by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville.  As part of the plea agreement filed with the Court, Katarina S. Carinci agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess …

Hunter Gremillion pleaded guilty for indirectly killing another man through the sale of fentanyl.  On June 30, 19-year-old Brennan Buckner from Tullahoma died as a result of taking the drug that Gremillion had sold to him.  After pleading guilty for aggravated assault resulting in death, Gremillion was sentenced to 12-years in prison at the Tennessee Department of Corrections. According to the Buckner family’s attorney, …