Lee County Coroner to host fentanyl symposium
TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – In twenty-two years as Lee County Coroner, Carolyn Green has helped many grieving families, but one case made a lasting impact.
‘I worked an overdose of a young lady I had known most of her life,’ Green said.
That young lady died from an overdose of fentanyl. Green says her office worked 26 fentanyl overdoses last year. The synthetic opioid is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin.
“I want to educate parents, teachers, youth ministers, first responders, about fentanyl, because it is here in Lee County,” Green said.
The Lee County Coroner’s Office will host a symposium on fentanyl next Monday, August the tenth, at Hope Church.
The event will feature experts from law enforcement and Gina Archer, founder of the nonprofit Fight the Good Fight.
Archer’s son died from an accidental fentanyl overdose.
Illicit fentanyl is often pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescriptions or opioids.
‘You can take one pill laced with fentanyl, and it can kill you. These pill mill producers- it is cheaper to produce the pill laced with fentanyl, but it is killing our Lee County residents right and left,” she said.
Vendors will be at the symposium with information, along with Narcan for first responders. In fact, Narcan is carried by many law officers across the area. It is standard treatment for an opioid overdose.
Green says the fentanyl crisis is widespread and impacts people from all walks of life.
‘It could be someone you are sitting next to church on Sunday, who needs a pill for pain issue, or maybe Xanax, but they are getting fentanyl, but it’s extremely dangerous,” Green said.
The symposium is free and takes place next Monday at Hope Church from 6 until 8 in the evening.
For more information call (662)844-5509.
