HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Houston County's coroner's office is seeing a lot of autopsy reports coming back with the same word --- Fentanyl.
In Houston County, fentanyl is killing more people this year than last year.
Houston County Coroner James Williams says just a few weeks ago, they had three fentanyl overdose cases in one day. Out of those three cases, only one person survived.
Williams says many people are using drugs that are laced with fentanyl.
"They don't know what they're putting in their system," Williams said.
He says in 2021, Houston County had about 20 fentanyl-related deaths. This year, he says, the county has had 30 fentanyl overdose deaths --- and several cases haven't come back from state crime labs yet.
"We get asked a lot of times if the deaths are suicide and these are what is considered accidental overdoses. These people are not realizing that they're ingesting fentanyl into their system," Williams said.
Williams says it's a "highly-addictive" drug and can be lethal even in small amounts. The ages of this year's Houston County fentanyl victims range from 15 to 73.
"This doesn't discriminate against a certain race or age group. There's no certain age group or race or any of that. It's out there and it's on the streets and it's killing people. We're seeing it too much here in Houston County," Williams said.
Criminal Division Lieutenant Matt Moulton says street Fentanyl is about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
"You look at just the money involved in it: You buy a kilo of fentanyl for $4,000. You press a thousand tablets as 30 milligram Oxycontin. That's $30 million in profit that a clandestine lab can make by pressing those tablets; and that's leading to the overdose crisis that we are seeing here in Houston County and throughout Georgia and the entire nation," Moulton said.
Fentanyl doesn't have to be ingested. It can also be absorbed through your skin.
"You never know what you're buying off the street. My advice -- do not take anything, any substance, any tablet, any pill, any type of drug that you would buy off the street. Don't do it. Don't take it," Moulton said.
"These numbers, while they are shocking, that doesn't tell the whole story on how many overdoses that we have, not only here in Houston County, but in our state and country," Williams said.
Williams and Moulton said these were death-related fentanyl overdose cases; meaning for every one death-related fentanyl overdose case, about 20 to 30 more overdoses involving fentanyl are happening throughout the county.
A common medication used to reverse opioid overdoses is called Narcan. It can be used by anyone, police or family members, especially to save someone from an overdose.