What has been referred to as a "modern day opium den" was closed in Knoxville after becoming the scene of several overdoses and one overdose fatality. The "den" was located at 2818 Dayton Street, Apartment 3, and was closed Wednesday under the state nuisance law.

Knoxville District Attorney General Charme Allen filed a petition that described how the residence was the scene of ten calls for service within the past five months. Most of those calls were related to drug overdoses; in one of those calls, an overdose victim was unable to be revived and died from the overdose.

Investigators with the Knoxville Police Department found that one of the occupants at the residence, Cassandra Canupp, gave the victim the drugs he injected that caused the overdose. An autopsy revealed that the victim died of fentanyl and cocaine intoxication.

General Allen said the residence was operating as a "haven for criminal activity," and needed to be closed before another victim died of an overdose at the location.

This use of the nuisance law is the forty-ninth closure by the DA's office and KPD in their efforts to make neighborhoods safer from activities that affect the safety and quality of life for the people who live in these communities.