After landing behind bars for the 35th or so time in her adult life, Shannon Adams decided she’d had enough of the wreckage brought by drug addiction. 

She began attending Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings while serving a prison sentence in South Carolina. Once she was released, she entered a transitional residence that helped her maintain sobriety.

Now, a decade later, Adams said she has been able to restore bonds with two of her four adult children. She is grateful to be alive and, as a certified peer counselor, to be helping others rebuild their lives after addiction.

“I have lost lots of friends and loved ones to overdose,” Adams, 45, said at an event thrown by the Lexington/Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council on Friday to commemorate those who have died from drug overdoses in Lexington and Richland counties. “They had to suffer so that I could make it happen is the way I look at it.”

Lexington County’s latest numbers on this front are encouraging. Its drug overdose deaths dropped to 75 last year, nearly 20% lower than the 93 deaths in 2024, according to data from LRADAC, a local nonprofit that offers drug treatment and recovery services. 

The figures reflect a decrease from the 125 fatalities of 2022 for the third consecutive year.

Richland County’s numbers, however, went the opposite direction. After a steady decline since 2021 (which registered 137 overdose deaths), the county’s fatalities last year jumped to 110, more than 20% higher than the previous year’s 90 deaths.

That neighboring counties could see such differing trends is not out of the ordinary, according to law enforcement officials, since drugs sold on the streets don’t undergo quality control.   

The recent uptick in Richland County deaths could have been due to “a bad batch of fentanyl that came in,” said Mike Tooley, assistant special agent in charge at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in South Carolina. 

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, has been driving fatal overdoses in the country for over a decade. Illegal drug manufacturers have added fentanyl to all sorts of substances to increase their potency, including methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, which federal authorities say are heavily trafficked in South Carolina.

The declining drug deaths in Lexington County are in line with the nationwide trend since 2022, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks. 

Researchers say the exact reasons for the ups and downs in fatal overdoses are hard to identify, but they’re closely linked with access to drugs and to the opioid reversal medication naloxone, better known under the brand name Narcan.

“Potentially, some of those overdose reductions are because someone had Narcan,” said Ashley Bodiford, director of prevention at LRADAC. For instance, she said, her organization partners with the Lexington County Detention Center by installing a Narcan vending machine at the jail. 

Drug disposal bins, such as those found at pharmacies, also prevent unused prescription medication from ending up in the wrong hands. Bodiford said some people mistakenly think prescription drugs are safe because they came through a doctor. 

CDC data shows prescription medication has actually been the most common cause of drug overdose deaths in the state for over a decade now.