The Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force is comprised of several law enforcement agencies in Northwest Georgia, including law enforcement in Chattooga County.  The Drug Task Force says that fentanyl is one of the deadliest illegal substances that poses a threat to our area.

Earlier this year, several people died in Walker County from fentanyl-laced narcotics, and one of those people was a woman from Menlo.  Another suspected fentanyl-related death happened at the end of February, and that person was from Chattooga County as well, according to Caine Railey who heads up the Drug Task Force.

Just two milligrams of fentanyl is sometimes a fatal dose, according to Railey and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC warned first responders can be exposed to fentanyl by breathing it in or by touching their eyes, nose or mouth with contaminated hands or gloves. Liquid fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin, the CDC said, and in other forms skin exposure may contribute to whole-body toxicity.

Four Chattooga County residents died of opioid-involved overdoses in both 2020 and 2021, according to Georgia’s Department of Public Health. In Walker County, 14 died of opioid-involved overdoses in 2020, while 13 died of that cause in 2021.