January has seen a sharp uptick in non-fatal drug overdoses in Lexington.

That's according to the overdose detection mapping application system or OD map.

29 non-fatal overdoses were reported between January 4th and January 7th, and that's after a 17 reported the previous week.

Fayette County had not received an alert from the OD map system since February of 2023.

Officials with the Fayette County Harm Reduction Team are urging caution.

The best thing that people can do, particularly people who are using drugs or their friends and family around them, would be to never use alone.

We always tell people to start low and go slow.

You can always take more drugs, but you can't take them out once you've taken them.

Part of our program is to distribute Narcan throughout the community and to our participants, and we want everybody that may encounter an overdose or may overdose themselves to have Narcan on hand.

We also encourage people to go to treatment.

We have recovery resources.

We determine what's best for that person based on their needs and help them find somewhere that's going to fit for them.

We know that people will not recover from substance use disorder until they're ready.

And so trying to arrest it away or force them into anything is not going to work.

It needs to be their choice and on their time.

Since its founding in 2015, the Lexington Fayette County Health Department Harm Reduction Clinic has seen over 94,000 visits and distributed mo