Florida Governor announces more than $200 million to combat opioid crisis

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis announced additional funding to help combat the opioid crisis Friday.

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The announcement comes in response to the more than 107,000 lives lost to drug overdose nationwide in 2021.

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More than 75 percent of those deaths were caused by opioids.

In the press conference announcing the new funding, DeSantis said enough fentanyl entered the United States last month alone to kill every American citizen.

More than 8,000 Floridians died from drug overdoses in 2021.

More than half were caused by fentanyl.

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“The reality is you have this stuff just flowing into our country and it’s very, very dangerous,” DeSantis said.

In response to the growing crisis the Governor is directing $205.7 million from opioid settlement payouts to support prevention and treatment efforts.

The funding includes:

• $10.2 million to establish an office of opioid recovery.
• $26.8 million to expand the state’s CORE Network to 17 additional counties.
• $39.4 million for prevention efforts.
• $92.5 million for treatment.
• $25.3 million for recovery and peer support.
• $11.3 million for data integration to evaluate the success of the initiatives.

There’s also an additional $135.4 million in settlement payouts that will be distributed directly to local governments.

The prevention money will go towards distribution of content teaching students of the dangers posed by drug and alcohol use to Florida schools.

“We have to tell our children that when they think they’re taking something like a Xanax, which we don’t recommend, but if they are doing that and it’s laced with fentanyl, that’s it. That’s the end of their life,” Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis said.

The money will also purchase 186,000 additional overdose kits, to help revive overdose victims.

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DeSantis said combined with recommendations in his budget request, total funding to combat the opioid crisis in the upcoming budget will likely surpass half a billion dollars.

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