New Drug Trend
By: Kali Nicole
knicole@klkntv.com
Doctors at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center say one of the new big trends with people who abuse prescription drugs is fentanyl and morphine. Police say they saw just that Wednesday afternoon.
Around 12:45 Wednesday, Lincoln police and Lincoln Fire and Rescue were called to the 7100 block of Van Dorn. There, police say a 23-year-old and 19-year-old were found unconscious. They accidentally overdosed on prescription drugs, one being fentanyl patches they smoked. Doctors at St. Elizabeth's say it's a growing trend that started just in the last two years.
LFR Chief Medical Staff, Dr. Jason Kruger said, “Children getting into them or people with substance abuse problems getting into these things inappropriately, they may not realize how strong and how powerful these things can be. You know with these fentanyl patches when you have 72 hours of medication in one patch, and you take that in a minutes, that could be rapidly deadly.”
The two people brought into the ER this afternoon did survive, but doctors say they were lucky. Doctors and emergency responders also wanted to continue to remind everyone to keep a good eye on any prescription drugs you take, and to try and dispose of drugs discretely to keep people from doing this sort of thing again.
