Barre, Vermont, has seen seven drug overdoses in the last week and one of them lead to a death.
The police have now issued a cautionary warning for people to be careful but they are not exactly sure what people need to be looking out for.
According to Barre Police Chief Tim Bombardier, “In the past, we’ve put out warnings. There are illegal drugs around, people are ODing from them, this is what to look for packaging. This time, we didn’t have any packaging. All we have is plain glassine envelopes.”
“Probably if we had one particular place, I wouldn’t have put out a warning,” the chief said.
“The change recently has been that fentanyl is showing up more often in cocaine and also we’ve seen it in THC, as well, which is unique for this region,” explained
Deborah Hopkins, the operations director for Vermont Substance Abuse Services.
“With the hope and expectation that people like it and think it’s just strong THC and go back and get more. And what happens is that creates a dependency on the fentanyl,” Hopkins said.
According to Hopkins, high-end drug dealers use this method to get their users hooked.
“Officers can actually get folks into treatment based on a phone call to us. We have an expedited system for them and we will get them through the door and do an assessment with them really quickly,” Hopkins said.
