COLUMBIA, S.C. — During the first years of this decade, drug overdoses rose 25%, with many of those being from fentanyl, according to reports by the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services (DAODAS).
However, some experts say fentanyl deaths might be declining, and that could be due to increased prosecution of drug dealers and more availability of a life-saving drug.
Wednesday, State Attorney General Alan Wilson announced indictments for fentanyl trafficking and associated overdoses in the upstate of South Carolina, including five people accused of distributing drugs who are now facing murder charges.
"If you sell a drug that you know to be laced with fentanyl and you know there is a possibility for someone to die taking it, we consider you a murderer, and we are going to indict you for murder," Wilson said. "This is a very aggressive legal posture for the state to take and we are taking it."
According to the Attorney General's office, 64 defendants have been charged to date to stop the suppliers of fentanyl.
"We've identified that there have been, in Greenville county alone, over 270 related deaths. That number has dropped significantly. I believe in part of this investigation that people were taken off the streets, and the drugs were taken off the streets."
Also helping to lessen deaths is an increase in the availability of a life-saving drug - naloxone.
Sara Goldsby, the Director of DAODAS, helped start the overdose protection project in 2016 with DHEC.
"Naloxone is a FDA-approved medication that blocks opioid receptors," Goldsby said. "At that time, law enforcement and firefighters did not typically have naloxone on them to address an overdose when they arrived at the scene. They had to wait for EMS. So, by getting that program up and running and making sure officers and first responders across the state were trained and equipped with naloxone, they've been able to reverse thousands of overdoses ahead of an ambulance or EMS response."
According to Goldsby, there are over 200 locations in the state where the public can access naloxone. In 2023, they distributed over 34,000 prevention kits.
With increased access to naloxone and additional measures taken to decrease the distribution, the hope is numbers continue driving downward.
"Some of my goals and aspirations are to work with the legislator to give us more aggressive laws - actually putting murder as a crime for the distribution of fentanyl," Wilson said. "We are charging murder now, and we believe this is a viable way to go after these fentanyl traffickers, but we would also like the general assembly to give us additional tools and statutes to include murder as a potential charge for someone who gives a drug laced with fentanyl to someone."