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Large number of overdoses in Macomb Co. reported

Posted at 2:08 PM, Feb 04, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-04 16:13:23-05

Macomb County Sheriff's deputies have saved nine people who have overdosed in the past two weeks, according to Sheriff Anthony Wickersham.

According to Wickersham, the office has been investigating a large number of drug overdoses. Since Jan. 20, there were at least 10 incidences where people have overdosed.

Nine times, deputies used opioid-antagonist medication Naxalone (NARCAN), to revive the people. IN one case, they could not save the person.

This isn't the first time the sheriff's office has dealt with a high number of overdoeses. In May 2015, the office started an Opioid Overdose Prevention Program due to an "alarmingly high number of drug overdose calls."

So far, there are 138 deputies trained and equipped with NARCAN. There have been 26 instances where NARCAN has been used which resulted in 21 lives saved.

In the 10 instances in the past two weeks, eight resulted from heroin, or a combination of another drug with heroin, one was an Oxycodone overdose and one was unknown.