By WHITNEE ICE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph area has seen a recent jump in opioid overdoses in the last few months.
Co-CEO of Family Guidance Center Kristina Hannon says this has happened in other areas of the state as well and the concern was the Kansas City Northland area drugs would start moving towards Northwest Missouri.
"The kind of concern was, it would not take those drugs that were there long to travel up I-29 and get here and I think that's part of what we're seeing," Hannon tells St. Joseph Post.
Hannon adds that in the month of March there were over 60 overdoses locally, which is more than twice the total number of overdoses the year before.
Hannon says the increase in overdoses is not related to social isolation and the COVID pandemic.
"I really think that what's driving the current increase is that the drugs that are here and available now contain much more dangerous Opioids," says Hannon.
Buchanan County Director of EMS, Steve Groshong agrees and says the increase in overdoses is also not specific to teens but it's affecting all age groups.
"We have had some young people but it seems like we always have some young people so I don't know if it's any more involving the younger people or just as a whole subset of the population that're overdosing," says Groshong.
Groshong says drug addiction often starts with people getting medication for pain treatment. He notes that Narcan doesn't help all types of overdoses, only opioid overdoses.