Tenn. Health, Law Officials Warn of Fentanyl Dangers: You can Die Just Touching the Drug

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Tennessee’s top law enforcement and health officials “sounded the alarm” Thursday that you can die quickly just by touching certain drugs that are found on the street or maybe a party.

The head of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol and commissioners for health and mental health and substance abuse departments warned Tennesseans about new, fatal risks of fentanyl-related drugs that are being manufactured around the state.

TBI Director Mark Gwyn said he was “incredibly worried about mass casualties about these illicit drugs,” while warning that “this has the potential to impact every single Tennessean.”

Gwyn cited a recent drug operation in Tennessee where 10,000 pills an hour were being produced.

THP Col. Tracy Trott cited an incident recently where one of his eight interdiction teams statewide “have had a couple of significant stops where we have seized over 20 pounds of the drug and when you consider that two or three grams can kill you, 20 pounds is a very significant amount of this drug.”

Col. Trott called it a “public health emergency” that’s “a crime and it’s a crime that is going to result in many deaths in this state.”

He called Thursday’s news conference an effort to “educate the public on the dangers of these illicit drugs.”

Trott added that he will be “working day in and day out with the TBI to interdict these drugs that are making their way into our communities.

http://wate.com/2017/06/15/tbi-issues-warning-on-dangers-of-fentanyl/