Increases in opioid overdoses leads to red alert

JACKSON COUNTY, Ore. — The Jackson County Public Health and Human Services has reported they’ve seen an increase in accidental overdoses from illegal opioids. The red alert is being issued based on a sharp spike of overdoses occurring within the last 24-hours.

Jackson County Public Health says they have seen these spikes occur in hospital emergency department admissions, law enforcement, and emergency support services response and deployment of Narcan. There is currently one suspected fatality during the last 24 hours.

Jackson County says most of the overdose cases they’ve seen have come from heroin and fentanyl. The idea behind the alert is to inform the public and the medical community of these increased overdoses so that they can prevent others from happening in the future.

Jackson County is reminding people that if you do use drugs make sure you have an overdose plan. You should also be prepared and have Naloxone readily available.

Maxx’s Mission will be in Alba park on Saturday, December 21st and Monday, December 23rd from 2-4 pm providing free naloxone.