Six people have died from drug overdoses in Roane County in the past week. Roane County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Boduch said that’s the most he’s ever worked in one week.

“We’re concerned that there’s a bad batch of something going around right now,” he said.

Four of the victims were men and two were women. The youngest was 37 and the oldest was 61.

“All went for autopsies,” Boduch said. “We don’t have the toxicology reports back yet, but at one scene we found carfentanil.”

Carfentanil is a Schedule II substance under the Controlled Substances Act and is used as a tranquilizing agent for elephants and other large mammals.  Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid approximately 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times. more potent than fentanyl.

The six deaths haven’t been concentrated to one part of the county.

“There was one in Kingston, two in Harriman, two in Rockwood and one that had a Harriman address, but it was in the county,” Boduch said.