![]() He said he wants to immediately get supplies in the hands of his officers and have them trained on their use. Young said EMTs have access to overdose treatments like naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, but deputies do not. Young and other law enforcement plan to meet Thursday with officials from the Department of Children and Families and the state’s surgeon general to discuss how to address the problem. “We’re hoping to push these cases to murder cases,” Young said. Either way, he wants severe punishment for those involved. He believes it arrived in the county prepackaged, so it’s possible local dealers weren’t aware they were selling fentanyl. He said investigators are trying to trace the source of the drugs laced with fentanyl. These are some of the addicts that are truly, truly addicted.” “These people, even with the fear of the fentanyl and that they could die, they’re still going to take a chance going out there and getting these drugs. ![]() Young said he had helped the same man get a job about a month ago. One of the men treated for an overdose on Friday was released from a hospital Sunday, only to return after a second overdose on Tuesday. He gave an example of just how powerful the addiction can be. “For the dealers, with fentanyl and other opioids, they want to make sure people get hooked to keep their sales up,” Young said. “It’s definitely fentanyl and it’s in drugs we wouldn’t expect it to be in, for example cocaine or marijuana or methamphetamines.” “In these last six months I’ve seen the most overdoses that I’ve ever seen since I’ve been working here,” said Jennifer Travieso, who has worked at DISC for 17 years. It includes Gadsden County as well as Tallahassee, the state capital. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning three months ago about what it called “mass-overdose events.” It cited dozens of deaths in more than a half-dozen clusters in recent months in locations ranging from the small town of Cortez, Colorado, with fewer than 9,000 residents, to major cities such as Washington, D.C.ĭISC Village is a nonprofit drug treatment center with services throughout Florida’s Big Bend, the cluster of counties where the Panhandle meets the state’s peninsula. The problem has become so acute that the U.S. Law enforcement officials say most people affected don’t know it’s in the illegal drugs they’re buying _ in amounts that otherwise wouldn’t necessarily be deadly. While the victims were 34 or older, Green worries younger people could be endangered, “if we can’t hurry up and get it off the streets.”įentanyl can be 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, and dealers lace it in with other illegal drugs to boost their addictiveness. “This brought an alarming notice to them. “They didn’t even realize their mother was using again,” Green said. County Commission Chairman Ron Green said among the families of victims he knew were the children of a woman in her 60s who died over the weekend. Many families have known each other for generations. Gadsden County is largely known for its vegetable and livestock farms, historic Southern buildings and antique shops. It means that much to me that we could lose people in such a short period of time.” “I’m really treating this like we had a hurricane coming into town. I feel their pain,” Young said Wednesday. In addition to the nine deaths over the holiday weekend, another nine people were treated for suspected fentanyl overdoses. ![]() Then last Friday, calls to emergency services began flooding in.
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