Overdose deaths in Warren County doubled in 2021

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Last year saw twice as many overdose deaths in Warren County as there were in 2020.

Tommy Loving the executive director of the Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force says statewide 70% of the overdose deaths were caused by fentanyl, according to the state medical examiner’s office.

Loving says many of the people who buy street drugs may not be aware that the drug they’re buying may be laced with fentanyl.

He says locally, last year they were able to shut down a couple of different drug trafficking organizations that primarily dealt with crystal meth.

He also says that seeing the number of overdoses rise in one year is alarming.

“When you have that number double that that’s very troubling. I do think we had been behind the curve when you compare it to a lot of the entire state. But again, that’s certainly something we don’t want to see and that part of why we do what we do is to stem the flow of drugs that causes overdose deaths,” says Loving.

Loving says in recent years, alongside several law enforcement agencies and the commonwealth’s attorney’s office they’ve been able to identify the sellers of drugs that have caused certain overdose deaths and prosecute them accordingly.

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