Fla. out to crack down on opioids

Scott, Bondi want controls on dealers, sober homes

TALLAHASSEE – With overdose levels skyrocketing, Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday the steps Florida is taking to combat the opioid epidemic.

They include support for two bills now making their way through the state legislative session that would crack down on opioid trafficking and deceptive advertising of sober homes.

They have also reached an agreement with a drug company for major reductions in the cost of drugs used to revive overdose victims.

And they plan to hold a series of workshops in the state’s worst-hit counties. The first will be in Palm Beach County in a few weeks, although no specific dates have been set, said Scott

spokeswoman Jackie Schutz.

In South Florida, the epidemic has hit crisis levels. In Palm Beach County, the morgue has had trouble storing all the bodies. In one March day alone, 10 people died from overdoses. Palm Beach County saw 592 overdoses in 2016, with another 582 in Broward County, according to officials in both counties.

A map released last week by Broward County illustrated the location of hundreds of overdose deaths, highlighting the depth of the problem.

“We fought the pill mills, but now our challenge is bigger than ever,” Bondi said.

Sober homes — halfway houses for people fresh out of rehab — have changed the face of neighborhoods. Throughout South Florida, dozens of people involved in the sober home industry have been arrested over the past year on charges that include dealing drugs, committing health care fraud and sending kickbacks to rehab centers in return for clients.

State Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, sponsor of the sober homes bill that Scott and Bondi supported Tuesday, wanted Scott to announce a public health emergency, as he did with Zika and the pill-mill crisis.

“A state of emergency coalesces everybody behind the problem,” Clemens said. “I’m a little perplexed and confused as to why we have thousands of deaths in the state of Florida and we’re not creating a state of emergency. But we have some wildfires that have caused zero deaths, yet that’s what they create a state of emergency for.”

Bondi also announced the state had reached an agreement with Adapt Pharmaceuticals for “a dramatic reduction in cost” for Narcan, a nasal spray used to revive people going through an overdose.

The unspecified cost savings will be available to police, paramedics and other first responders.

“We hope a lot of other people will step up to the plate now who manufacture things like this,” she said.

The first bill backed by Scott and Bondi would add fentanyl, a synthetic opiate more powerful than heroin, to Florida’s drug-trafficking statute. It would also make selling fentanyl and carfentanil, an even more powerful narcotic, result in a first-degree murder charge in cases where the buyer dies from an overdose.

That legislation was also backed by the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Florida Police Chiefs Association. Representatives of both groups spoke at the news conference with Scott and Bondi.

“I never thought we’d get to a day where our officers are out there having to administer something to individuals to try to save their lives on scene — that’s usually reserved to EMS, fire personnel,” said Coconut Creek Police Chief Albert “Butch” Arenal, president of the Florida Police Chiefs Association. “I also want to stress the importance of fentanyl trafficking. This bill must go through. It must pass.”

The second bill would crack down on deceptive advertising by sober homes, a particular problem in Palm Beach County. Clemens, the bill sponsor, estimated there are more than 1,000 of the halfway houses in Palm Beach County, with hundreds in Delray Beach alone.

“They are horrible places, they are mainly based in the Palm Beach area, and that’s where addicts are being taken in under the guise of getting the rehab that they need and further addicted to drugs,” Bondi said. “This sober home legislation will give the governor’s agencies the power to regulate them and put them out of business like we did with the pill mills.”

But Clemens said shutting down the sober homes would be both “illegal and unconstitutional.” Because addicts are treated as having a physical disability under federal law, a confluence of the Fair Housing Act and Americans With Disabilities Act means that sober homes are federally protected from simply being regulated out of business.

As a result, whole neighborhoods, especially in Delray Beach, have been overwhelmed.

“If the bill passes and it has teeth, it’ll work. If the bill passes and it doesn’t have teeth, it won’t,” said Captain A.J. O’Laughlin of Palm Beach Fire Rescue, who also spoke at the conference. “We got to give these police officers and firefighters the resources they need. The only way we can do that is to push this legislation through.”

Scott said that community workshops will continue in Manatee, Duval and Orange counties. Representatives from the Florida departments of Children and Families, Health, and Law Enforcement will attend. Local leaders, law enforcement and members of the public will be encouraged to offer ideas on how to fight the opioid epidemic.