Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced $205.7 million would be allocated to fight fentanyl addiction in the state by expanding a pilot program and funding mobile units that can help rural communities.
“We’re here today to talk about our efforts to combat the opioid crisis, and this is a serious crisis affecting not just the state of Florida but really every corner of these United States,” he said.
DeSantis was joined by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, an advocate for drug prevention causes, touting the program as a first in the nation.
“The urgency to combat substance abuse is only escalating—we are no longer talking about the drugs from 10 years ago, and the key to protecting our children is prevention,” said Casey DeSantis in a statement.
The press conference included an anti-drug public service announcement video and emotional testimony from a woman who recovered from addiction and a mother whose daughter died from fentanyl.
Casey DeSantis said the video would help students say no to drugs—reminiscent of President Ronald Reagan’s wife Nancy’s campaign against drugs in the early 1980s.
Fentanyl is especially deadly because street drugs such as heroin and pills popular with teens, such as Xanax, are often laced with it. Only a tiny amount of fentanyl is needed to kill someone.
DeSantis said he is funding the program by rolling the $205.7 million that Florida received from the Opioid Settlement Funds back into fighting addiction in Florida.
He said the money would expand the CORE Network, covering a 12-county emergency response and addiction treatment program piloted out of Palm Beach County, which launched last August.
The CORE program is designed to establish a coordinated system of care for those seeking treatment for opioid use through a partnership with county health care resources and emergency medical services. DeSantis said the program would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and be expanded to 17 counties.
For communities in hard-to-reach and rural areas in Florida, the opioid settlement money will be used to pilot a program with up to five on-demand mobile treatment teams offering medication-assisted treatment. These mobile teams will provide on-site assessments, recovery support services, and medications for substance abuse, according to DeSantis’ office.
All Floridians, even those not residing in CORE counties, will have access to help through the Flcorenetwork.com website. The state will also distribute 186,000 kits of naloxone, a life-saving nasal spray for Fentanyl overdose, to hospitals, county health departments, and community behavioral health settings.
The governor said $26.8 million would be used to expand the pilot program. Another $10.2 million would form the Office of Opioid Recovery, which will be a part of the Department of Children and Families.
DeSantis said $39.4 million would be earmarked for prevention, $92.5 million for treatment and recovery, $25.3 for recovery and peer support, and $11.3 million to integrate data on crime related to opioids, overdose statistics and other information to evaluate the program’s effectiveness.
DeSantis, who many speculate will run for president, took the opportunity to contrast his efforts to deal with the fentanyl crisis to what some consider inaction on the part of President Joe Biden.
Biden has been widely criticized for an open border policy that has allowed a record number of illegal migrants to cross over the southern boarder and allows drug runners to smuggle deadly drugs such as fentanyl into the country.
In 2021, DeSantis said more than 107,000 Americans died from a drug overdose, and over 75 percent of those were related to opioids, adding that more people are dying from drug overdoses than car crashes every year in our country.
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration has done slim to no work to actually try to prevent opioids from entering our communities in the first place,” DeSantis said.
“We know that things like fentanyl are manufactured in China, and they are sent to North America, into our country, via the southern border between the United States and Mexico.”
DeSantis said the state recently filed suit in the Florida panhandle against the Biden administration for his catch-and-release program allowing illegal immigrants into the country.
The governor added that he is taking additional steps to stop the flow of illegal migrants coming into southern Florida by boat.
The statewide Director of Opioid Recovery, Dr. Courtney Phillips, said in a statement that continued legislative and financial support is needed to expand CORE in more counties.
“This access will continue to save lives, save families, and serve as a solution to this complex epidemic that has ravaged our communities,” Phillips said.
Appointed to the position last August by DeSantis, Phillips supports the behavioral health system in the state and offers clinical consultations for addicts seeking treatment and recovery services. Before her appointment, she served as Director of Behavioral Health for the Health Care District of Palm Beach County.
