Orange sheriff wants federal funds devoted to opioid crisis,

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings hopes the president’s public health crisis declaration over opioid abuse will create additional funding for local law enforcement.

“In order for the nation to be successful in addressing this opioid crisis, it’s going to take a multi-prong approach,” Demings said Thursday.

Government officials need to bring attention to the risk of death through awareness campaigns and must devote funding to treatment, investigations and prosecution, Demings said.

Demings, also co-chair of Orange County’s heroin task force, worked on state legislation that passed this year making penalties for trafficking fentanyl the same as other drugs, including cocaine. The law includes prosecuting dealers as murderers in overdose deaths.

Local law enforcement has worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to have cases prosecuted at the federal level when its law allowed for harsher penalties.

The U.S. Middle District of Florida’s division in Orlando has had a prosecutor, Shawn Napier, focus on opioid cases. He obtained a murder conviction for a dealer in September.

In August, the U.S. Department of Justice tapped the Middle District of Florida to be one of 12 pilot sites to head up an Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, which focuses on prosecuting doctors and pharmacists who improperly distributed opioids. The district dedicated senior prosecutors in Tampa Bay, Orlando and Jacksonville.