Opioids are still a major problem, but reports of a new drug in the community have officials concerned.

With 76 overdose deaths in Vanderburgh county, coroner Steve Lockyear says a mixture of drugs are to blame; prescription pills, meth, and even alcohol, but one drug more potent than morphine has started to make its way into Vanderburgh county, leaving a trail of death in its wake.

“People are dying, falling down on tops of themselves when they are doing this and they don’t understand the dangers of it.”

Vanderburgh county coroner Steve Lockyear says fentanyl has played a part in many of the 76 overdose deaths in Vanderburgh county in 2017.

In many of those cases, Lockyear found a common thread, “mixed medications, a lot of different drugs. Very seldom do we see someone die from just a single drug in their system.”

But it is fentanyl that has authorities’ attention for now.

“It can be more than 100 times more powerful than morphine, and that is the dangerous part of these clandestine labs that are making this is when you buy this off the street, you have no idea what you are getting.”

The Evansville fire department is working to combat the drug epidemic sweeping the nation.

“We have used it 164 times since then.”

Keith Current -EMS manager with the Evansville fire department says his crews have been working with Narcan since April, 2017.

Their most critical tool in the fight against Opioids, the Narcan-Nalaxone kit. Current says can saves lives if administered quick enough.

“If you can get this into their system, as soon as somebody realizes there is an issue, it will generally turn them around in really about 3 minutes.”

Steve Lockyear says the average age for an overdose in Vanderburgh County is 39.8 years old.

White Caucasian males are the biggest demographic affected, second to African-American, and thirdly Hispanics.

Narcan-Naxolone can be prescribed by a doctor, or bought over the counter.

The fire department carries two Narcan kits on their truck, but says it only works on opioids, not the potent fentanyl.

Even when Narcan is able to save lives, coroner Lockyear sees the destruction drugs leave behind.

“We spend 175,000 dollars a year in this office just in testing and autopsies for these so it very quickly becomes a burden on the tax payers and that doesn’t even include the cost of the funerals and how this affects families.”

Which is why Lockyear says the fight starts at home.

“So it may take a family member to ask a friend, somebody keep an eye on them and make sure you get them the help they need. there are resources out there and go that direction, not the direction of coming to this office.”

Amanda Porter

Reporter and Anchor for 44News

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GAVEL GAMUT By Jim Redwine

Week of February 5, 2018

SPANN(ING) THE GLOBE

It may not be the “Constant variety of sports” or the “Human drama of athletic competition” as promised by ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but Jim and Stephanie Spann’s New Harmony Soap Company provides a fun learning experience and great smells. Peg and I now know how to make soap and we have the aromatic masterpieces to prove it.

When Peg told me she had signed us up for a three hour soap-making class for this past Saturday my first thought, which I prudently kept to myself was, “Well, there goes my day off”. It was held at the New Harmony Soap Company on Main Street and was taught by the Doctor of Saponification, Jim Spann.

Saponification is not a misspelling of the great Italian sausage, soppressata, which is what I secretly hoped when Professor Spann started his lecture with the term. Turns out it is an ancient Latin term for soap-making. According to Jim we humans have been trying to remove the grit and maliferous substances from our bodies with homemade soaps since, at least, Babylonian days about 5,000 years ago, probably about the time that human population began to increase.

My first memories of soap-making involve our Pawhuska, Oklahoma neighbor lady, Mrs. Caldwell. I do not know her first name as when I was a child adults did not have first names. Today, complete strangers address everybody by first names and even the President of the United States is “The Donald”. But the demise of polite society is stuff for another column. For now, we are addressing the wonderful world of soap-making.

Whereas Mrs. Caldwell brewed her lye soap in a galvanized tub over an open fire in her yard next door to my family home, Peg and I were carefully and skillfully instructed in the use of electric hot plates and stainless steel pots.

Instead of hours of stirring her concoction of sodium hydroxide, water and lard as Mrs. Caldwell did, Peg and I had the use of electric mixers. And our lard was supplanted with coconut oil, palm oil, sunflower oil and shea butter mixed with distilled water and a cornucopia of interesting scented oils, such as clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, eucalyptus, rosemary, peppermint, etc., etc., etc.

Once I accepted my fate of a Saturday without football or simply vegetating on the couch, my next fear was of falling into the remedial group of soap makers. No problem. The process was so easy even a judge could follow it. Although Peg was always at least one step ahead of me, no one else seemed interested in my progress. It was truly a lot of fun.

If you are looking for something different to do right here in Posey County, I highly recommend the Spann College of Saponification in New Harmony. The New Harmony Soap Company has 4 more soap-making classes coming up; 2 in February and 2 in March. And while I am in no way intimating you might have a need for it, you might smell better too.

For more Gavel Gamut articles go to

www.jamesmredwine.com