Families tell of pain caused by opioid epidemic

State officials held their first opioid workshop in a county where the ravages of drug addiction were on full display Monday: Grieving parents, friends and family shared their frustration, grief and pain.

Jay Blogg, 56, of Boynton Beach, lost his 24-year-old daughter Rebecca to an opioid overdose last year. Victoria Ghrayeb, 21, of West Palm Beach, lost her 25-year-old brother in early April. Jordan Meyers, 25, lost two friends this week, he said.

All of them attended Monday’s workshop to share their stories. With overdoses on the rise, Gov. Rick Scott directed multiple state agencies to meet with those affected.

People began gathering outside the West Palm Beach Police Department in the early afternoon, waving signs and welcoming officials ahead of the meeting.

Althea Adolphy, 51, of Boynton Beach, was one of several residents asking the state to declare the opioid crisis a health emergency.

For the past 20 years, she has worked as a nurse, she said. Recently, she asked to be switched out of emergency care because she couldn’t take all the overdoses, Adolphy said.

South Florida has been hard-hit by the crisis, including Palm Beach County, which saw 592 overdoses in 2016, according to county officials.

Inside the police station, two dozen state and local officials sat for a round-table discussion surrounded by residents. The room was so full people sat on the floor, stood in the back and spilled out the double doors to listen.

Department of Children and Families Secretary Mike Carroll began the workshop by of-

fering condolences.

“My heart goes out to any family who has lost a loved one to addiction,” Carroll said. “So that’s why we’re here, to see if we can turn the page on that.”

Officials devoted two-thirds of the workshop to explaining what the state, county and local government are doing to combat the epidemic, leaving the last 45 minutes for public comment.

Representatives from the Department of Health, the Attorney General’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and other agencies outlined what the state is already doing to address the crisis, including:

■ $17 million in new grant funding to expand medication-assisted substance abuse treatment, said John Bryant, assistant secretary of substance abuse and mental health treatment at the Department of Children and Families.

■ 2,400 kits of naloxone, the overdose reversal drug, distributed for free, to groups including treatment providers — resulting in 13 lives saved, said Ann Berner, CEO of Southeast Florida Behaviorial Health Network.

■ 1,000 people trained on overdose prevention in Florida since August, Berner said.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg described authorities’ efforts to go after unscrupulous sober home operators who exploit drug users.

Palm Beach County Mayor Paulette Burdick — among other officials — talked of seeking additional funding to help those in treatment.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay vented about state officials she said have not done enough to help resolve the crisis.

“I’m angry today,” McKinlay said. “While I certainly appreciate all of us sitting around the table and having this conversation, we just did this in January in Tallahassee. We held this press conference with the attorney general. … We laid out a plan and nothing was done.”

Residents, too, shared their frustrations during the public comments.

Many who attended the workshop said they would like to see the governor declare the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. Others asked for more publicly funded treatment beds.

At the end of the workshop, several people interviewed expressed gratitude for local officials and frustration that the state hasn’t done more to help. Local officials seem to be working hard to combat the epidemic, said Meyers, a recovering addict.

“What I take away from it is that there are a lot of upset, angry and hurting people,” he said after the workshop ended.

Additional meetings will be held in Manatee and Orange counties on Tuesday and Duval County on Wednesday.