Council of Governments Gets Update on County's Opioid Epidemic

 

PALMETTO – An update on Manatee County's opioid epidemic, and the county's handling of the problem, was provided at Tuesday's Council of Governments meeting, when local leaders heard from Drug Free Manatee's Jessica Spencer.

"As most of you know, we have been the number 1 county for heroin and fentanyl deaths," said Spencer. She made a point of calling the problem an opioid crisis as opposed to a heroin crisis, noting that the county is still dealing with abuse of prescription painkillers. Spencer advised that per the 12th Judicial Circuit's Chief Medical Examiner Russell Vega, Manatee County had 69 deaths from fentanyl and 34 from heroin through August 2015.

 

Fentanyl is itself a short-term opioid painkiller that is often used during anaesthesia, and is more than 80 times stronger than morphine. Recently and frequently found to be laced with heroin bought by addicts, fentanyl has played a significant part in skyrocketing overdose numbers, in Florida and elsewhere in the U.S.

Spencer also spoke on:

• Child removal from care of guardians. As of November 30, she said, the county had removed 97 children from homes for the year due to heroin or opioid abuse exposure, making up 36.6 percent of the 324 that were removed due to substance abuse exposure.

• Efforts to spread information about how people in the community could dispose of unwanted medications. During the meeting, Spencer presented a Deterra kit, product designed to render prescription drugs impotent.

• The need to spread awareness of how to properly and safely dispose of medications. "We need to look at this (situation) like we're still dealing with an opioid crisis ... so that our children, criminals, whomever, do not have access," Spencer said.

• Florida's Good Samaritan Act. "Many of you know–it offers limited liability if you are in good faith trying to save someone's life," she said. One provision of the GSA law gives immunity to people possessing illicit drugs if they call emergency services in the event of someone overdosing.

• Local law enforcement's current experience with fentanyl, which she said has not been seen as much on the street recently by police. The fentanyl wave, she said, is hopefully past.