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St. Louis is seeing a surge of drug overdoses due to 'speedballing' meth and fentanyl

It's called "speedballing" — mixing crystal meth and fentanyl. Just by themselves, both are incredibly dangerous. Combining them together is becoming deadly.
Credit: Clancy, Samuel

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis drug abuse advocates tell 5 On Your Side, in just the last week, overdoses have surged.

A new potentially deadly mix of drugs may be to blame.

It's called "speedballing" — mixing crystal meth and fentanyl. Just by themselves, both are incredibly dangerous. Combining them together is becoming deadly.

"A person using substances doesn’t devalue them, it just means they’re sick," said Aaron Laxton of Missouri Safe Network.

Aaron Laxton is one of the many soldiers in MO Safe Network's army of drug abuse advocates.

"I know behind each and every person I work with, it’s somebody's child and somebody’s father," he said.

Like so many who work in this south city office, he fights to save lives in the opioid epidemic because he's been there himself.

"So I get it. It’s not something I’ve read about and I thought it would be cute to work with," Laxton said.

Aaron partners with several hospitals and clinics in the area. He said the last week has been brutal.

"I’ve gotten reports from other recovery communities, hospitals that ERs have been flooded in an increase of overdoses as of late," he said.

He hears, there's been a huge influx of meth being distributed in Missouri, and that's only exacerbated the problem.

"Basically the heart and the brain doesn’t know what to do. You have an upper and a downer," he explains.

It's not a new concept but it's gotten much more dangerous as both drugs are being crafted stronger now than ever before.

"But what we’re seeing is that individuals will take both and they kind of cancel each other out so what the individual will do is they’re going to keep going until they feel something. This is where we see an increase in people overdosing," said Laxton.

Aaron tells 5 On Your Side, a big way to fight the epidemic is through expanding drug treatment courts in Missouri.

Instead of prosecuting and incarcerating drug offenders, these courts provide them with help.

"This gives them the path to be able to get the medical care and mental health care that they really need. And at the end of it, the court can mark that felony or that crime off their record," he said.

Lawmakers are actually in Jefferson City this week, debating the concept of expanding the program to all Missouri counties and providing them with more resources.

"The numbers bear out that these types of programs work, to get our people the help they need to come off substances and live a life that’s in recovery," he said.

It's one of the many solutions this soldier is working on, in a fight that has no end in sight.

"If I could wave my magic wand we would have 10 more mental health programs and 10 more substance use programs. You never can have enough," said Laxton.

We spoke to the acting Floor Leader in the Missouri Senate earlier this week. He tells us - he believes expanding drug treatment courts has enough votes to pass during the special session.

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