New Trends Offer Hope About Florida’s Drug Crisis

Somewhere in one of Florida’s many sober living homes, two newfound drug buddies are relapsing as they trade stories about their many efforts to achieve sobriety.  Every offer of help from anyone seems to come with three more obstacles standing between a recovering-for-now addict and long-term sobriety.  This trend holds true even if you remove the supervillains from the equation, the pill mill doctors who pretended not to know where the pills they prescribed would go, and their successors, the sober living home administrators who offer little support while enriching themselves.  Many of the obstacles come in the form of missed opportunities.  Once patients who arrive at the hospital after an overdose are stable enough for discharge, doctors simply send them back to the homeless shelter, the street, the house full of druggie roommates, or wherever else they came from, with no plans for follow up, at least no feasible ones.  The number of overdose deaths in Florida has decreased since the days of the omicron wave, but plenty of journalists, judges, and voters still treat drugs and the people who get caught with them as the bogeyman.  The best way to avoid a draconian punishment when you are just trying to avoid drug withdrawal until you find a recovery program that is willing to invest in you is to contact a Florida drug offenses attorney.

Free Medication-Assisted Treatment Is Available in 13 Florida Counties

Drug overdose deaths were three percent lower in 2022 than they were in 2021; this is the most recent data that has been published.  Police departments and sheriffs’ offices will tell you that it is because they broke up several drug trafficking rings that were transporting fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into Florida; indeed, law enforcement seized a record quantity of drugs in 2022.  Anyone who last used drugs in 2022, however, will tell you that it is because they finally found the community support they needed to stay sober.

Florida used the money it received from the opioid lawsuit settlements to found the Coordinated Opioid Recovery (CORE) Network, which provides recovery services at no cost to beneficiaries.  The CORE Network currently operates in 13 counties in Central and Southwest Florida.  It provides medication assisted therapy, transportation, and in some cases, financial support to program participants.  The beneficiaries first become connected to the CORE Network by contacting one of its county branches, such as Operation PAR or the Hillsborough Recovery Coalition.  CORE Network personnel may be among the first responders who respond to 911 calls about overdoses, and sometimes they visit patients who are hospitalized after an overdose.  In some counties, CORE Network personnel bring Subutex to participants in their homes or the shelter housing where they are staying.

Contact FL Drug Defense Group About Drug Cases

A Central Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for possession of opioids.  Contact FL Drug Defense Group in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Sources:

tampabay.com/news/2024/03/20/florida-firefighter-was-skeptical-about-this-response-opioid-overdoses-then-he-saw-it-working/

operationpar.org/

news4jax.com/news/local/2024/02/19/decrease-in-drug-related-deaths-in-florida-gives-new-glimmer-of-hope-to-families-affected-by-addiction/