Orange officials renew their efforts to curb opioid deaths

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office announced renewed efforts Wednesday to battle the region’s opioid epidemic, following a significant spike in drug-related deaths so far this year.

“We are seeing people dying today. There is a certain sense of urgency associated with this,” Sheriff Jerry Demings told the press, alongside substance abuse experts and county officials.

“We have a duty to warn people that we’re seeing some bad stuff that’s on our streets today,” he said. “We have this duty to show people where they can get treatment, where they can get help.”

In the first six weeks of 2018, overdoses in Orange County have increased by 61 percent, compared to the same period in 2017, to a total of 191 people. Twenty-two of those individuals died — 12 more lives claimed by the epidemic than in the same period last year.

“We saw a decline when we first started the heroin task force, things were stabilized. But in recent weeks and months, we are seeing the numbers begin to skyrocket,” Demings said.

The Sheriff’s Office also launched a new public service video that features a 25-year-old woman who died from a heroin overdose Jan. 9.

Demings and Mayor Teresa Jacobs co-chair the Orange County heroin task force, which Demings said has helped curb heroin deaths in the past.

The jump, he said, could be because of an overwhelming influx of opioid drugs that have flooded the region. “We want to hold accountable those who are drug dealers,” Demings said. “Much of what we’re seeing coming into this community is coming in from our southern borders, some of it is coming in — when we talk about fentanyl for example — some of it coming in through the postal service.”

Carol Burkett, director of the Orange County Office for a DrugFree Community, also announced the county received a $2 million federal grant to help with substance-abuse treatment. It was one of 21 communities in the country to receive it, and the only one in Central Florida.