CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — West Virginia faced many struggles with the overprescribing of opioids in recent years, but now it’s street drugs that are causing the most deaths. Specifically, fentanyl.
“I had overdosed 11 times,” said Jordan Dennison, Peer Recovery Coach at First Choice Services. “I was an addict for a little over 10 years. I was in-and-out of jail. Thankfully, I found a way out before it was too late for me.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be deadly in small amounts. Fentanyl deaths doubled from over 32,500 fatalities to over 64,000 nationwide, in two years between April 2019 and April 2021.