Augusta billboard highlights the local toll of fentanyl
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - If you’re driving through downtown Augusta, you may see a billboard dedicated to those who died of fentanyl overdoses.
The powerful synthetic opioid is fueling a record-setting number of overdose deaths in Georgia and South Carolina.
Despite warnings, officials say they expect even more people to die in 2022.
Much of the fentanyl being ingested is laced into other narcotics, so drug s may not even be aware they’ve bought it,
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 100,000 people died from overdoses in the U.S. between May 2020 and April 2021. That’s up from 78,000 the year before. The health agency reported 64 percent of those deaths were caused by synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl.
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