Fentanyl

While adult overdoses surged in the last decades, teens hadn't seen the same kind of death rates. But now fatal overdoses nearly doubled in one year and continued to rise in 2021.

Community activists blitzed beaches and warned spring breakers of a surge in recreational drugs cut with the dangerous synthetic opioid.

In statehouses across the country, lawmakers have been considering and adopting laws on two fronts: reducing the risk to users and increasing the penalties for dealing fentanyl or mixing it with other drugs.

A new wave of opioid deaths, fueled by fentanyl, is raising old fears in Palm Beach County. Meantime, sheriff's office policy on naloxone is an outlier in the state.

Opioid overdoses have been a major problem in Florida for years. The synthetic opioid fentanyl is even more dangerous. Health workers are trying to distribute overdose kits as widely as they can.

Fentanyl is causing more deaths in Florida than any other drug. According to the latest data from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, Broward and Palm Beach counties are first and second, respectively, in the number of deaths related to the drug.

New research released by the CDC found roughly 932,000 fatal overdoses from 1999-2020. Preliminary data show another 100,000 deaths this year.

Drug-related deaths increased by 17% in 2020, and the region suffered tremendously. The CEO of a Pinellas substance use treatment program said the trend is worrisome.

Project Opioid founder Andrae Bailey says the pandemic accelerated the real problem: the synthetic opioid fentanyl flooding the markets.

Overdose rates were on the rise before the COVID pandemic, but last year's lockdowns exacerbated the issue.