‘Russian Roulette.’ A loaded bullet named fentanyl taking the lives of Georgia residents

“He’s gone.”

Those are the words Wanda Gallops heard the night her son, Dalton, died from a fentanyl overdose in a Columbus hotel.

Described as a gentle, down-home, country boy, Wanda said Dalton was “a good kid. He knew God, he loved his family, and we’ve always been close.”

Wanda said Dalton thought he was taking an oxycodone that “horrifying” night, according to his text messages. She said if it had been oxycodone, he’d still be here.

Dalton’s story is heartbreaking, but it’s increasingly common as the country grapples with a flood of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50-to-100 times more potent than natural opioids like morphine and codeine and significantly more addictive than illegal drugs like heroin.

Designed to provide pain relief for cancer patients, the drug packs a deadly punch even in tiny amounts: a dose as small as two milligrams, which could fit on the tip of a pencil, can kill someone, according to the DEA.

Often made in China, Mexico or India and smuggled into the United States, fentanyl is added to common illicit drugs so dealers can sell smaller amounts while maintaining potency, according to Dr. Kavita Babu of the University of Massachusetts medical school. Dealers also manufacture drugs laced with fentanyl that mimic prescription opioid pills, like oxycodone.

Death Totals

As illicit fentanyl pours into the United States, people are dying at exponential rates. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services measured a 97-fold increase in synthetic opioid deaths between 1999 and 2021, the last year for which nationwide data is available. More than 70,000 people died from synthetic opioid overdoses in 2021, according to the CDC.

Georgia has not escaped the epidemic. In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, just under 1,400 people died from fentanyl overdoses in the Peach State, up from just over 500 in 2019, according to the state’s health department.

Counties across the state are wrestling with the problem. In Muscogee County, fentanyl overdoses quadrupled to 18 in 2022 from four in 2019, according to the state health department and coroner Buddy Bryan. Cobb County, in metro Atlanta, saw more than 100 fentanyl overdoses in 2021. Bibb County had 19 in 2021 and 24 last year, according to county coroner Leon Jones.

Recent busts

Perhaps no statistic better demonstrates the deadly potential of fentanyl than the number of doses recently seized by law enforcement, only a portion of opioids circulating in the U.S.

In 2022, the DEA captured the equivalent of 379 million doses of fentanyl, enough to potentially kill everyone in the United States.

The busts have continued this year. In late February, federal, state and local police said they’d seized 4.5 million fentanyl pills and 140 pounds of fentanyl powder from the Sinaloa drug cartel in Arizona.

The Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office captured more than 380,000 doses in January, Sheriff Greg Countryman said.

Countryman said the majority of overdose deaths in the Columbus area involved fentanyl, and that even touching the overdose can be deadly. This year, over the border in Lee County, Alabama, two officers went into shock after they were exposed to a substance that may have been fentanyl, according to the sheriff there.

Countryman said his intel shows fentanyl in Muscogee County comes from China and Mexico. He’s increased the number of drug investigators and has partnered with five federal agencies in response, but there still aren’t enough resources.

“The harvest is great, as the Bible says, but the workers are few,” Countryman said.

Personal loss

What’s easy to lose in those millions of doses and thousands of deaths is the real, human impact. When Dalton Gallops died on Aug. 4, 2020, he left behind a daughter who looks just like him, his mother Wanda said, and shares his love of the outdoors.

“Everything from a bag of chips to a song on the radio reminds me of him,” she said. “I’ve struggled. Oh my God, I’ve struggled. I haven’t wanted to live. The only thing that has kept me even halfway there has been his child.”

Dalton had personal struggles that led to drug abuse, Wanda said, but after a stint in the hospital he was clean and was back to his old self before he died.

“He was a good person,” she said. “He knew the Lord. So we know that’s where he’s at now. That’s honestly what keeps me going, is knowing I’m going to see him again.”

Naloxone and Narcan

If you or a loved one struggles with chemical dependency naloxone and Narcan are available without a prescription at Walgreens pharmacy thanks to a recent Georgia law.

Naloxone and Narcan help stabilize someone who is suffering from an overdose from opioids.

However, multiple doses may be needed in the case of fentanyl.

This story was originally published March 6, 2023 at 5:00 AM.