Official: Illegal drugs remain big problem in NW Ga.
Walker board votes to affirm task force support
Another likely opioid-related death in Northwest Georgia was reported by the commander of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force as part of a presentation on the region’s fight against illegal drugs.
The report came as the Walker County Board of Commissioners approved another year of participation in the four-county drug task force. Illicitlymanufactured fentanyl and its effect on Northwest Georgians was the presentation’s main focus.
“It’s a lot worse than everybody thinks,” task force commander Caine Railey said of the synthetic opioid at Thursday’s meeting. “Walker County’s had quite a few overdoses. I’m sure everybody knows about the three that overdosed in one house in Chickamauga.”
Comprised of officers from several law enforcement agencies and representatives from a state and federal agency, the task force’s mission is to investigate drug-related crime in its jurisdiction of Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade and Walker counties.
Federal funds reimburse the local agencies, Railey said.
The victim last week in Chattooga County was in possession of fentanyl, Railey said.
Walker County Commissioner Mark Askew said fentanyl is so prevalent in the community he fears an accidental overdose of someone not intentionally involved with the drug.
“A dealer could have it (fentanyl) on his hands or have it on his clothes, and you may just get a Coca-Cola out of your local convenience store and not even know it, and it would be enough to kill you right there,” Askew said.
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.
In Georgia, the Department of Public Health said from 2019 to 2021, fentanylrelated drug overdose deaths increased 124% — from 614 to 1,379. The CDC estimates about 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Four Chattooga County residents died of opioidinvolved overdoses in both 2020 and 2021, according to Georgia’s Department of Public Health. In Walker County, 14 died of opioidinvolved overdoses in 2020, while 13 died of that cause in 2021.
In late December, Railey said the task force seized a kilogram of fentanyl and equipment to manufacture pills from bulk fentanyl. Railey also said a Walker County Sheriff’s Office deputy died of exposure to fentanyl. Corp. Christopher Jackson Dye died in 2020 of a fentanyl overdose after being exposed during an arrest.
Earlier this month, the Walker County Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of more than $31,000 of breathing equipment for the Walker County Sheriff’s Office to reduce exposure to fentanyl at crime scenes. At the commission’s Feb. 9 meeting, Walker County Sheriff’s Office’s Lt. Pat Cook said first responders in Walker and Catoosa counties have received medical treatment recently due to fentanyl exposures.
Commissioner Brian Hart asked if methamphetamines were still a problem in the community.
Blaming a “wide open” U.S. southern border, Railey said the price of meth has plummeted since he became a drug agent more than a decade ago. When he started, he said, meth was $1,200 an ounce, and now an ounce costs $125.
The board renewed the intergovernmental agreement unanimously.
Local agencies in the task include Fort Oglethorpe Police Department, LaFayette Police Department, Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office, Dade County Sheriff’s Office, Walker County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Department of Community Supervision and the U.S. Army Counter Drug Unit.
According to its website, the drug task force began in 1990 with a federal justice assistance grant.