Editorial: Opioids present a life-or-death problem for Central Florida.

The term “crisis” is applied to a lot of issues these days, so it’s easy to roll your eyes when you hear that thousands of Central Floridians could die if something isn’t done fast.

Project Opioid will say that when it releases a study of the area’s drug addiction situation Tuesday.

We’ve seen the report, and you won’t roll your eyes.

Project Opioid is a volunteer group of area leaders who formed in January to address the painkiller epidemic. One of its first goals was gauging how serious the problem is in Central Florida.

After a four-month study in conjunction with UCF, we’ve learned there are almost 70,000 people addicted to pain relievers and/or heroin in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.

Marketplace changes will soon force many of them to seek drugs on the street or get into treatment programs. But the area is woefully unprepared when it comes to such programs.

“This boils down to a simple math problem,” said Kendall Cortelyou-Ward, an associate professor at UCF who co-authored the report. “There are too many people that have opioid-use disorder … and there’s not enough medication-assisted treatment for them.

“We have to do something.” Answering that call will require action on many fronts, including how society views drug addiction. It’s easy to stigmatize addicts as weak-willed junkies you pass on the street and try to ignore.

That would necessitate a lot of ignoring in Central Florida, since the study found 68,906 people are addicted to opioids. Such a high number suggests they may be people you see in company break rooms, shop with at Publix, sit next to during worship.

Approximately 130 of them die a day in the U.S. That’s almost 48,000 a year, and the toll is projected to be 82,000 by 2025.

That 2025 estimate is 24,000 more people each year than the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam War.

The battle is about to intensify in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, which had 689 opioid deaths in 2018. Ironically, the intensification is partially due to advances in the overall war.

The opioid crisis was spawned in part by the overprescription of painkillers. Thanks to public pressure and lawsuits, opioid prescriptions decreased about 12% in the past year in Central Florida, though it’s still a vexing problem.

Project Opioid backer Rick Van Warner had shoulder surgery last week. The doctor prescribed hydrocodone.

“Thirty-something pills,” Van Warner said.

While such pain management is often medically necessary, a glut of pills buried America. They seeped into the hands of people like Van Warner’s son.

His recreational use led to dependency, years of treatment and a dozen relapses. Now a recovering addict, he turned to the street for drugs.

Along came fentanyl about five years ago. It’s a synthetic opioid that’s wildly profitable and incredibly deadly. The study noted that two grains the size of sugar granules can kill an adult.

In 2016, law enforcement seized 7 grams of fentanyl in Orange County. So far this year, 2,281 grams have been seized.

“It’s everywhere,” said Andrae Bailey, the founder of Project Opioid.

And the stakes are about to be raised. The decline in opioid prescriptions means many addicts will be cut off from their supply.

That positive is complicated by a huge negative: Central Florida is in no position to treat those people.

Bailey said the best approach is medically assisted treatment (MAT). It’s a combination of therapy and drugs, the primary one being buprenorphine.

That made it controversial at first, since they’re basically replacing one drug with another. But medical associations worldwide have endorsed it as the “gold standard.”

The problem is, out of thousands of doctors and nurse practitioners in Central Florida, 261 have acquired the waiver required to administer buprenorphine, according to the study.

Bailey said only 17 even advertise on the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website. And most of those shuffle patients into expensive, traditional 12-step treatments.

That gets back to the stigma. Bailey said many doctors don’t want the public to think their waiting rooms are littered with junkies. There’s also little money to be made through MAT.

That’s going to change as states settle lawsuits against Big Pharma and governments increase funding. But that takes time, and thousands of Central Floridians will turn to fentanyl while the clock ticks.

“There’s this horizon that should scare all of us,” Bailey said.

He said the immediate fix is to incentivize doctors to incorporate MAT into their practices. That would require fundraising, “but the money’s out there,” Bailey said.

Central Florida is fortunate to have an organization like Project Opioid to light such fires. It is bringing together government, business, nonprofit and faith leaders, which shows how pervasive the problem is. Project Opioid and the Sentinel are hosting a town-hall discussion Tuesday, looking for solutions to the crisis.

Such efforts are a good start, but real progress will require a plan that encompasses more government funding, law enforcement aid, better treatment options for chronic pain, insurance reform and a rethinking of the whole dependency issue.

Addiction is complex, but the opioid crisis has shown it’s not a moral failing to be stigmatized. It’s a disease that victimizes all segments of society. If Central Florida fails to respond, we’ll find out just how devastating a crisis can truly be.

Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Shannon Green, Jay Reddick, David Whitley and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.