U.S. Drug Czar visits Twin Cities after historic spike in overdoses

(FOX 9) - President Donald Trump’s current Director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy is in Minnesota Thursday to meet with U.S. District Attorney Erica H. MacDonald.

Jim Carroll was appointed to the position also known as the Drug Czar in February of last year.

He joined MacDonald for a press conference addressing the state of Minnesota’s response to drug use and addiction.

Caroll's visit comes after six men in South St. Paul were rushed to the hospital for drug overdoses earlier this week. Police in the area warned the public about five new cases as well. 

In addition, Minneapolis Police announced Thursday they responded to 65 drug overdoses between May 28 and June 3 in the city. 

It was an all-time weekly high for the city of Minneapolis for drug overdoses. 

Minneapolis Police said 15 of those overdoses occurred on June 2 alone. There was one fatality. 

The MPD Strategic Analysis Unit and investigators detected counterfeit oxycontin and potent heroin among the drugs contributing to the spike. 

At the meeting with the drug czar, MacDonald said, "This is not a war on drugs, this is a fight for our families." 

After the recent spike in overdoses, Carroll talked about what is happening in the Twin Cities. 

"This is an open investigation, but the idea of a spike alert is meant to tell everyone that there's dangerous, really fatal drugs out there and the fact that there's a spike certainly indicates that there's something happening right now on the streets that people need to be concerned about," he said. 

He added that people taking a drug they think is cocaine or Xanax, may in fact be the deadly fentanyl drug. 

"We want to do everything we can collectively to get the education efforts, get the treatment that we can and for everybody to know that there's no safe amount of illicit drugs," said Drew Evans, the BCA superintendent.