From the grocery store to the gas pump, the effects of inflation are being felt across the commonwealth. The high cost for many prescription medications is causing some to worry about the danger of people getting counterfeit drugs.
Synthetic opioids can be laced into drugs and can easily be fatal. Shabbir Imber Safdar is the executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines. In an interview with Eastern Standard, he said their focus is on bogus drugs laced with fentanyl, a longtime problem in Kentucky.
“If you look at 2021 you had over 21-hundred people die of drug related deaths, drug related overdoses and poisonings as we call them in 2021 and its being driven by Fentanyl and fake pills.”
Shabbir said health departments are having a hard time to keep Narcan in stock.
“Fayette County Health Department has been working hard on just trying to keep enough Narcan in stock, it's actually a problem in every part of Kentucky, but also in the whole country. There’s so many of these deaths happening it is almost impossible to keep it in stock between first responders and others.”
Narcan is a prescription medicine used to treat someone dealing with known or suspected opioid overdose.
You can hear more about the problems with fake pills and Fentanyl tomorrow on Eastern Standard on Thursday.
