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GOP Senator Highlights Opioid Prescription Limits In Video

Senator Benacquisto (R-Fort Myers) in her new video.
Senator Lizbeth Benacquisto YouTube
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Senator Benacquisto (R-Fort Myers) in her new video.
Credit Senator Lizbeth Benacquisto YouTube
/
The Florida Channel
Senator Benacquisto (R-Fort Myers) in her new video.

The state senator leading the charge on opioid abuse in Florida is leaning heavily on prescription limits in a new YouTube video.  Her measure caps most prescriptions at a three day supply.

Fort Myers Republican Lizbeth Benacquisto is backing a proposal that places limits on opioid prescribing and requires physicians use a drug monitoring database.  She’s turning to YouTube to build support. 

In the video, a woman named Elizabeth Pine describes losing her son.

“I took two steps in the room and there’s my baby,” Pine says. “On the bed.  Dead—needle still in the arm.  And I—my world stopped.”

Pine explains a doctor prescribed opioids to her son while he was recovering from an injury.  After becoming addicted she says he moved on to heroin.  Benacquisto’s prescription limit is meant to keep others from following a similar path. 

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Nick Evans came to Tallahassee to pursue a masters in communications at Florida State University. He graduated in 2014, but not before picking up an internship at WFSU. While he worked on his degree Nick moved from intern, to part-timer, to full-time reporter. Before moving to Tallahassee, Nick lived in and around the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years. He listens to far too many podcasts and is a die-hard 49ers football fan. When Nick’s not at work he likes to cook, play music and read.