Fentanyl: The Crisis at Home | How the drug is impacting the CSRA

AUGUSTA, Ga (WJBF) – Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. die every year from drug overdoses, and with the introduction of fentanyl on the streets, it’s getting worse.

NewsChannel 6’s Kim Vickers takes a look at how the fentanyl crisis is affecting people here in the CSRA in a special report, “Fentanyl: The Crisis at Home.”

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, one kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people.

It’s a drug that’s not only killing people in big cities, but also here in the CSRA.

“It’s a controlled substance, but it is used by physicians, mainly in the O.R. Now, fentanyl is 100 times stronger than morphine. So all you need is a teeny weeny little bit to get an effect,” said Dr. Marshall Bedder, Wellstar MCG Health.

Fentanyl is highly addictive and cheap to make. Because of that it has become a sought after street drug that’s made by drug dealers.

Dr. Bedder said the terrifying part is, they are making them look like more expensive drugs, even lacing marijuana .

“Let’s say a student going to a party and gets a pill from his friend, but it’s actually fentanyl. So it’s so powerful that he stops breathing. That’s the major effect. That’s what kills people,” he explained.

We looked into local fentanyl related overdose deaths. The numbers from our local coroner’s offices are shocking.

Let’s take a look at 2023.

Out of 27 overdose deaths in Columbia County, 15 involved fentanyl.

In Aiken County, 46 out of 59 were fentanyl related.

And in Richmond County, it was responsible for 82 out of 137 OD deaths.

So far in 2024 there are 4 confirmed in Columbia County, 28 in Aiken County and 19 in Richmond County, with many more expected pending toxicology reports.

Richmond County Coroner, Mark Bowen, said fentanyl is at least partially responsible for most of the OD deaths he has seen in recent years.

“We still got 107 cases that are pending toxicology that I would say most, if not all, will be a part of the drug overdose deaths,” Bowen said.

Cynthia Wheeless is a retired math teacher from Harlem. Her son, Chase, began using marijuana and heroine in high school and when he went to college he began using fentanyl too.

She told us that, for years, the family struggled with Chase’s addiction and the person he had become.  When he finally hit rock bottom they took him to rehab, where he got sober and stayed sober for nine months.

Then, Chase moved to a sober living home in Florida, where he relapsed and died. Chase believed he was taking heroine.

“As my husband says, it is not an overdose, that he put the heroin or thought it was heroin, but it was straight fentanyl . I mean, how can you call that an overdose when you’re thinking you’re doing one thing, and it was straight fentanyl. So he had enough to kill 16 people,” Wheeless said.

Steven Rosborough is a recovering addict who runs “Bridges of Hope,” a 6 month residential, 12 step program in Jefferson County for men recovering from addiction.

He uses his experiences from more than 3 decades of drug use to help others, including Chase.

While Rosborough’s drug of choice wasn’t fentanyl, he’s seeing it more with the men he works with.

“What I’m seeing now, in the past three or four years is everything is touched to some degree by fentanyl, right? I’m having methamphetamine guys come in who have overdosed on fentanyl doing methamphetamine. Guys that have literally died using cocaine with fentanyl in it,” said Rosborough.

In honor of Chase, Wheeless and her daughter, August Hubert, started the nonprofit “Wings of Wheeless.” Through it, they raise money to pay for GED’s, OSHA training, and possibly soon, CDL training for the men at “Bridges of Hope.”

They hope that providing that leg up might keep other families from going through what they have.

“But being able to see and go out to the “Bridges” and meet guys that are impacted and just families in the community that have been impacted, it helps so much,” explained Hubert.

“We just…we didn’t want his memory to die. And we wanted people to, hopefully, from his tragic death-to get help,” added Wheeless.

Below are links to a few local resources to get help for addiction and resources for families.

• Wings of Wheeless
• Bridges of Hope
• Lost Voices of Fentanyl

Photojournalist: Dania Alawir.

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