More than fifty people gathered at the Leon County Public Library Monday evening to talk about combating the opioid crisis. The epidemic hasn’t hit Leon as hard as some other counties, but local leaders want to be ready.
Big Bend community based care asked attendees to consider three policy responses to opioid abuse—treatment, enforcement and harm reduction. Rep. Ramon Alexander’s (D-Tallahassee) biggest take away is improving coordination and prevention.
“I think the whole concept in regards to trauma and taking a more micro-targeted approach and creating stop gaps early and looking at some of these generational cycles was rather fascinating,” Alexander says. “And how you develop a strategy and put programming around it that is more prevention style would be interesting to see how it would have an impact on people’s lives.”
State lawmakers are working on an opioid measure, with the governors backing, that would limit many prescriptions to three days and require doctors use a drug tracking database. Another proposal backed by two South Florida Democrats would remove barriers for needle exchange programs.
Copyright 2020 WFSU. To see more, visit WFSU. 9(MDAyNDY5ODMwMDEyMjg3NjMzMTE1ZjE2MA001))
