Overdose Concerns Following Latest Round of Stimulus Checks

WATCH – What we worry –

Jan. 13, 2021 – “When you give them $600 they’re going to really take it to the limit and that really will raise your chances of losing your life,” said Thomas Gooch, the Prevention Director for Street Works- an HIV advocacy center. Among its services Street Works runs a certified needle exchange program. “We provide clean syringes for individuals who use the syringes. We also dispose used syringes. We provide treatment referrals to where we try to get people into alcohol and drug treatment to help them out.” Gooch said Nashville drugs that were once hard to get are now cheaper and easier to find. “At one point in time, it was so difficult to get heroin. Now heroin is the cheapest drug to use.”

But equipped with new stimulus checks in people’s pockets, he worries things are about to get worse.

“What we found out was that the overdose rate spiked from the last stimulus checks and what we’re trying to do is be ready. We’re trying to provide Narcan for individuals, put it in the hands of every individual who comes to get clean syringes and any other kind of supplies that we provide.”