opioid overdose

District officials announced the development last week as they launched a countywide awareness campaign around the deadly risks of fentanyl.

The nasal spray version of naloxone is already available without a prescription in all states. But switching it to over-the-counter status would allow it to be sold in vending machines, supermarkets and other locations.

About a third of the city's 2,000 homeless deaths between April 2020 and March 2021 were from an overdose. The federal government says the highly addictive and lethal synthetic drug has become the deadliest drug in the nation.

The Tallahassee-area drug treatment program received 800 doses of Kloxxado, an 8-milligram internasal naloxone that is similar to Narcan but double the dose.

Three health facilities have been fighting the opioid crisis for several years and are the only providers of naloxone in the county.

The deal in principle would rank among the larger ones in a yearslong trend of companies settling complicated lawsuits over the toll from an addiction and overdose epidemic. That includes a $117 million settlement with Florida announced in March.

People who have lost children to pills laced with fentanyl are demanding that lawmakers adopt stricter penalties and are pressuring Silicon Valley for social media protections.

The bans from laws criminalizing drug paraphernalia adopted decades ago, but the devices are now recommended to help prevent overdose deaths. The Florida Legislature recently failed to end its ban.

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.