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Escambia One Of Nine Counties Included In New Opioid Recovery Program
August 4, 2022
Escambia County is one of nine counties in the state to be included in a new opioid recovery program announced Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis said the piloted substance abuse and recovery network addiction care – Coordinated Opioid Recovery (CORE) – is the first of its kind in the nation, according to the governor.
“Biden’s border crisis has caused a massive infusion of drugs coming into our state,” DeSantis said. “This year we increased the penalties for individuals trafficking drugs in our state, and now we are giving Floridians the tools they need to break the substance abuse cycle. Substance abuse can affect any family at any time, so from education to law enforcement to treatment we are going to make sure that Floridians can take advantage of this new addiction recovery model.”
Escambia County County EMS Chief David Torsell said recently that Escambia County leads the state in opioid overdose deaths.
“In my 26-year career, I have not seen as much death from overdose in such a short amount of time as I’ve been in Escambia County,” Torsell said. He’s been in Escambia County since June 1, 2021. “A very sad thing.”
As of August 1, Escambia EMS had responded to 1209 overdoses this year, with 37 of those in the last week.
“It is so vital for individuals contending with a substance use disorder to have access to the right array of services that will work for their individual needs,” said Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris. “When agencies, stakeholders, and partners alike come together to bolster our state’s system of care, we can ensure that Floridians have access to comprehensive services when they need it most. Today’s announcement of the implementation of the CORE Network model throughout the state is yet another example of how the DeSantis administration is leveraging our state’s resources to help families move forward with dignity on their journey of recovery.”
“Addiction is heartbreaking for all involved, and we ultimately want to help people address the stress traumas that led them to addiction,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. “One day the standard of care will address the trauma and the stress, but until then we have the evidence-based practices that exist in place. This program is an applied, intensive application to managing addiction through powerful, effective practice that connects people to what they need to get out of the horrific cycle of addiction.”
The COREprogram was successfully piloted in Palm Beach County for nearly two years and will be expanding in up to 12 counties to break the overdose cycle. Floridians battling with addiction can utilize CORE for stabilization and to receive medical assisted treatment that is specialized to sustain a clean pathway to success. CORE will be expanded in two phases. Phase one counties include Escambia, Brevard, Clay, Duval,, Gulf, Manatee, Marion, Pasco, and Volusia counties.
Comments
23 Responses to “Escambia One Of Nine Counties Included In New Opioid Recovery Program”
Wow. The ignorance in these comments is so sad. “People who OD should die.” That is absolutely hateful. We live in an evil world.
Bidens not making you take drugs. Just say no
@Barbara “What most of you don’t seem to understand, these are not your typical “overdoses”. These are drug dealers killing our children!”
The people that made the decision to buy drugs from dealers & use the drugs take the risk & end up dead.
There are resources to help those that want/need help. Here are 2 of many in our county.
Ministry village at Olive is a residential place for women
Waterfront mission life builders is a residential facility for men
1st I’d say….to wish death apon anyone is evil & wrong “sueB”. Addicts are people 2..many didn’t ask for the deadly com-bos they are given out of greed for more money from the dealers. The help “they” the programs is medical assisted medication. Which I personally have been on 5yrs.. & those drugs are just as addicting & have no good solutions to get off them. I’ve tried several times went to rehab & suffered.. & was given options to just trade medications or cold turkey from the meds they said would change my life. I’d did in many ways…but still no FREE FROM ADDICTION JUST A TRADE TO THE GOVERNMENTS MEDS PROGRAMS..
This is an absolutely amazing program that will help and assist many individuals that have the disease of Addiction. I also think much is needed in educating those who are unaware of this disease. The stigma focusing on past decades of old thinking of what addiction looks like is quite different today and it only increases the debilitating effects of this disease.
This is needed so badly here in Escambia County! Dr’s won’t write pain med prescriptions which forces people to either sit in pain & (I had surgery last month & can confirm) and suffer, or do something illegal & die. Pick your poison! I choose life with my family, but others, including my deceased father who died of an overdose in 2010, are not so lucky. Bravo, Governor DeSantis, bravo!
What most of you don’t seem to understand, these are not your typical “overdoses”. These are drug dealers killing our children!! I understand because my son was an addict who was murdered by fentanyl poisoning. He did not do fentanyl, it was laced into his drug of choice without him knowing. He didn’t ask for it nor did he want it, therefore he was poisoned and murdered. He did not overdose on meth or heroin. We need to start looking at this for what it is and we need to start demanding these dealers be prosecuted as the murders they are.
Unless…you are an addict, you have absolutely no clue…97% of people start using drugs due to some kind of underlying trauma, mental abuse, abandonment, poor parenting, stress, anxiety, depression etc..those are REAL issues..and when you start at a young age it’s usually because you had no where else to turn, so you follow suit to that life that gets you out of your head and temporarily helps you forget your life.
I’ve been an addict since I was about 17. And if you think someone can just stop..your wrong..
I was diagnosed as a stress user.
It’s not just about “quitting” that’s the easiest part..but unless you get to the root of why you started to begin with them your most likely to relapse the minute something goes wrong in life. I am fortunate that I was smart enough to not do the heavy stuff like heroin,ice,feytnal etc…and I’m grateful that ALOT of places and situations I put myself in ,did not get me killed cause when your doing drugs, you do not really care about anything.
I hope the program saves lives, and I hope they concentrate on people’s underlying issues ,otherwise it’s useless. Most people just want to know someone cares whether they live or die so I hope the program offers intense therapy. ..
Unless you’ve been there then please do not make ignorant comments. It’s an honest disease and everyone deserves the chance to live
Ya know it’s good to hear that we’ll have somewhere else for people to. The thing is, what’s it gonna cost? You think it’s so easy to go get help to get off drugs, huh? Well it’s not!! The only you can do is go to a couple meetings, but in a lot of cases that’s not gonna help. Trying to come off some of these drugs, without the appropriate help, WILL KILL YOU! Now you can go to a somewhere that offers rehab facilities, but it isn’t cheap. Some people pay over $400 a month to be able to get help with their addiction. (And that’s cheap!) But what if you don’t have the kind of money, what are you supposed to do. Well I’ll tell you…. You stay in the position you’re in. So yeah bring it on DeSantis, but for God’s sake please make it where the normal person can go and not have to give their whole paycheck to pay for it.
No, this isn’t all Biden’s fault. Our Country has had drug abuse issues for years! With that being said, it is worse now with Biden allowing all of the immigrants to cross the border into our Country and bring more drugs with them.
Thank you Governor Desantis for trying to make Florida better and for trying to make Escambia County a little better than before.
Governor , like you did to the State Attorney in Tampa ; look around Northwest Florida ; we have some here that need to go !!
I understand people need help getting off the drugs but first off. They made the choice to start using. Second we already have what I call Meth Lab right here. Third if they wanted to get off drugs they could have. Most of these people don’t want to get off. There is help if they wanted it. It’s no one’s fault but their own.
@Robert Bruner……..Excellent point but that could have been said two years ago also. Solving any problem would be greatly eased by our government working together and serving us instead of dividing us by issues.
If Joe Biden had anything to do with the sun rising, it wouldn’t.
He did not state that Joe Biden caused or started the issue, he made a simple statement that is true “Biden’s border crisis has caused a massive infusion of drugs coming into our state”.
Robert Bruner, you are right! It is not Biden’s fault. It is the stupid sheep who voted for him just because he was Democrat and not because he could do the job. He told us all the horrors he was capable of doing before he was elected and he did not disappoint! Now his poor mind has digressed further and the nation is paying the price for his incompetence!
@Robert – While I agree everything is not President Biden’s fault, this problem has been exacerbated by his administration effectively opening the border wide open. So yes, this crises was here before Biden and it will be here after Biden, but his administration is responsible for the large increase in drugs crossing the border over the last 20 months and the increase is overdoses.
biden continues to bring in illegals. People using drugs and OD should die. This will stop a lot of stealing and killing.
@RobertBruner yeah, you’re right. Joe can’t help that he’s an incompetent moron running the US with an equally incompetent VP.
Your right it’s not all his fault but a lot of it is.
“In my 26-year career, I have not seen as much death from overdose in such a short amount of time as I’ve been in Escambia County,” Torsell said.
This is because of fentanyl, which is being cut into street drugs because it’s cheap and easy to get. But even small amounts can be deadly. Fentanyl is the cause of most of these overdoses. The source of fentanyl? China. followed by Mexico and India.
Everything is not Bidens fault. It’s almost like saying “due to Joe Biden the sun rose in the east today”.. It gets very old. Let’s just deal with the problem. The crisis was here when Biden got here. You do not have to blame someone for everything.