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Local District Is The Deadliest In The State For Opioid Overdoses
August 3, 2023
The Pensacola medical district is now the deadliest in the entire state for opioid-related deaths.
“The national opioid crisis, bolstered by deadly fentanyl from Mexico and China, continues to claim lives in Florida—with the Pensacola Medical Examiner District being hit the hardest on a per capita basis,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said Wednesday at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Pensacola Regional Operations Center. “Today, I joined local law enforcement leaders to urge everyone to never use illicit substances.”
The medical district includes Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties.
In the district, the death rate from opioids is double that per capita of any other district in Florida.
“The opioid epidemic has hit every community in our country. We have been working tirelessly to create a plan of attack to address this deadly substance head-on,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said. “This plan combines a robust enforcement strategy and a partnership with our public health colleagues and Attorney General Moody in order to fully combat this epidemic. We look to reduce and disrupt the illicit supply chain while working with public health to provide services to those vulnerable to opioid effects.”
The state average per capita opioid-related death rate is 21 deaths per 100,000 residents. In the Pensacola district, the per capita opioid-related death rate is 42 deaths per 100,000. Of the 349 opioid-related deaths in the district, 60% involved fentanyl.
While the Pensacola Medical Examiner District ranks first in per capita opioid-related deaths, it is second only to Daytona Beach District in for fentanyl deaths per capita. Hydrocodone and morphine also pose threats to the Pensacola District with death rates propelling the panhandle counties to the top of those lists.
FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass said, “I thank Attorney General Moody for her commitment to law enforcement and the safety of our citizens. I’ve been to the Southern border and seen the drugs and crime that comes into our nation firsthand. I’m proud of our FDLE agents and analysts proactively investigating these crimes disrupting drug trafficking organizations and intercepting these drugs.”
Moody encouraged anyone struggling with substance abuse issues should visit DoseOfRealityFL.com, a statewide resource with information combating drug abuse.
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
24 Responses to “Local District Is The Deadliest In The State For Opioid Overdoses”
At a rate of 42 deaths per 100,000, that is higher than the highest ranked state for opioid deaths (West Virginia, 40 deaths per 100,000).
Whoa! This is a VERY big problem!
@Anonymous
Have you ever lost a spouse to a terminal disease? Have you ever lost a child in a car accident? Have you ever been laid off from your job, fall behind on your bills, and end up homeless?
If not, I’m glad to hear you’ve had such a happy life that you can’t empathize with someone who is in so much pain that they would do *anything* to make the hurt go away.
We’ve raised an entire generation of junkies. It all starts in there youth when we pump them full of calorie dense junk food and sugar that has the same addictive properties as drugs and alcohol……couple that with more poor parenting and sedentary lifestyle and the social acceptance of Marijuana and alcohol….there you have it…….hard reality here but china and mexico couldn’t pump us full of poison if the folks in our society respected themselves and weren’t junkies. There’s no market without a DEMAND. and I still believe we should punish the dealers just as bad….but have no sympathy for a junkie/user……
@ Uncle M
If we destigmatize drug use, what will we call the junkies?
Discipline Impaired?
Reluctantly Delinquent?
Lawfully Noncompliant?
We really need to nail this down so that we can get our best foot forward as we move into our advertising and media phase. We could be onto something. We can hit the market with a legal substance disguised as treatment, and administered by a doctor, that will also keep them hooked. No one will ever be the wiser.
I remember back in 2010 when the drug dealers I mean doctors started the opioid epidemic here. Anybody could walk off the street said their toe hurt and could get pills. We never recovered from that.
Let me put this in perspective. We have to change the stigma associated with opioid use disorder. The medical industry helped create the epidemic. There are programs out there to help but they are full of red tape and roadblocks. Yes, I believe the suppliers should face charges, especially if someone ODs and dies from their drugs. Opioid use disorder is treatable just like any other disease. Actually, people with hypertension and/or diabetes are more likely to relapse then OUD patients. That means they stay on their meds and treatment better and longer than others.
Obviously we’re not hard enough on drug dealers.
Singapore has the right answer in my opinion.
We need to be understanding, caring toward “Users” to help them get clean.
But we need to take a “Zero Tolerance” stand towards dealers.
Too many people feel sorry for the drug dealers until you have to bury a family member “A young Mother that left two little children behind in my particular case.”
Hell yes I want Drug Dealers put to death.
A lot of comments here make you wonder if you should EVER help someone who has fallen down. They could be an addict and it’s their fault they are on the ground. Or it could be one of these hard working Americans who DESERVE help to get up. According to the execute them all because they all look alike theory, it would be easiest to stop helping people at all because that’s Socialism anyway.
@ProgressiveCobservative
The Preamble of the Constitution outlines the purpose of our government and the role it is meant to fill in our society:
“…establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”
Our government wouldn’t be able to accomplish its end of that social contract without resources. We provide those resources in the form of taxes.
@bob, Except for that “tax” part. Kind of significant, but who cares when you have a point to make, right?
@George
If you aren’t anti-poverty, then you aren’t anti-crime.
Using taxes to promote the general welfare isn’t socialism. It’s literally in the first sentence of the Constitution. It’s American, and it’s the basic cornerstone of civilization.
Cmon. This is basic Civics 101.
@bob,
All I am asking is personal responsibility, not the people that work having to pay for those who won’t and want you to pay for them. Just common sense.
@George
Just like during the Red Scare, “socialism” has just come to mean “anything conservatives don’t like”.
Free school lunches? Socialism.
Brown people? Socialism.
Books about penguins? Socialism.
Democracy? Socialism.
Target? Socialism.
Electric cars? Believe it or not, socialism.
Where do all of these innocent drug users get the money to buy these drugs and why do they deserve special treatment when hard working people cannot get this special treatment. Bob you sound like a socialist to me. Your ideas don’t work. The only solution is personal responsibility and that will never happen.
@Bob,
Thank you for being a voice of reason amongst the many vitriolic calls for extrajudicial murder. It is insane that these people can’t imagine a scenario where they or their loved ones becoming the target of false charges leading to state sanctioned killing.
Also, what’s with the comments suggesting not to revive victims of drug overdoses? A drug addicted individual is NOT sub-human and as such deserves treatment. Especially when saving their life is as easy as providing narcan, an ambulance ride, and a short hospital stay.
@Mark
“what IS the percentage of innocent people put to death?”
It’s more than zero. Since 1973, there have been *at least* 190 people who were convicted, sentenced to death, and later exonerated.
Personally, for me? I’m not comfortable with the State EVER killing an innocent person for a crime they didn’t commit.
How about you?
@Bob, so what IS the percentage of innocent people put to death? Do you even know? Can you back up your claim with resources?
Drug addiction and alcohol addiction, while sad, comes from choice. You chose to take those drugs or drink that alcohol. Just as guilty as the “dealers” in my book.
@Bob
I couldn’t agree more. If we help support those who suffer from this terrible illness, they’ll use the opportunity to turn over a new leaf. Every suffering addict I’ve ever known or heard of has graciously accepted help from others, and used the opportunity to better themselves and their community.
@JJ, Eric, David, and anyone else who advocates for executing drug dealers
How many innocent people are you comfortable with killing in order to keep the death penalty? Are you comfortable with, say, 5% of the people that you kill being falsely convicted? 10%? Where do you draw the line?
Our legal system isn’t perfect. As long as we have and enforce the death penalty, there is a non-zero chance that innocent people are going to be murdered by the state for a crime they did not commit. The appeals process (that David wants to do away with) helps reduce that number, but there is no guaranteed way to ensure false convictions never happen.
Instead of using the state to kill people, why don’t we try introducing policies that ACTUALLY reduce the rate of drug use, like affordable housing, living wages, universal childcare, and public mental health and addiction counseling services?
Eric M. and JJ, I have to agree with you both. If this state would take an extreme extra hard line against every one of these drug dealers/suppliers and purveyors of death, then perhaps they could turn these statistics around. However the system needs to take a step further. Instead of just allowing them to make appeal after appeal and allowing them to set on death row for years, strap them down and shoot the juice into their veins for a change. I am sorry if I sound harsh, but it is far better the death dealers go down so that the young people can have a better chance at life.
@Eric. The alcohol & Tabacco industry are loading up the healthcare more than fentanyl. When they od most times they’re gone. But I do get your point.
Just because it’s here don’t mean you have to use it…… Somewhere along the line there is personal accountability required.
I use to believe that it wasn’t the government’s business if someone wanted to destroy their own lives. However, considering the massive drain on resources, specifically the tax payers, I have recently changed my mind. These poison pushers should be tried, and if convicted, sentenced to life in prison (or sentenced to death like in some other countries). We should stop spending hundreds of dollars on narcan for those that overdose, some which overdose multiple times a week. The citizens are on the hook for the hospital bills, emergency/1st responder costs, jail/prison, trials, appeals, etc. When does it end? When do you say enough is enough? Or, do you want to continue working so that your tax dollars keeps funding these meth heads and drug dealers, when we have veterans who can’t get medical treatment, when kids go to bed hungry nightly?
Dealers/pushers should be CONVICTED OF FIRST DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER AT THE LEAST. if caught with dealer amounts of the drugs. No specific victims need be pointed out in the case.