Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to Sign Order to Fight the Opioid Epidemic

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, announced Monday the signing of a decree to combat the "Addiction Crisis and the Opioid Epidemic" which is registered in the state.

"Substance abuse is a serious public health problem and, although great strides have been made, the epidemic of opioids continues to devastate families and communities in our state." He said in a DeSantis statement.

DeSantis said Florida would have an additional $ 26 million federal fund to carry out the plan to "deal with the opioid crisis" by reducing the number of deaths from abuse of this medicine.

The project also aims to prevent opioid abuse among young people and to "increase rehabilitation services and access to medical treatment".

"These problems require effective and immediate action and my administration is determined to take the necessary measures to combat this crisis," he said.

Finally, Republican DeSantis has announced the creation of a "Working Team Against Opioid Abuse", a unit that will "develop a strategy and identify best practices for combating the" disease. opioid epidemic through education, treatment, prevention, recovery and law enforcement ".

According to a report from the University of Southern California (USC) released last February, the mortality due to the "overdose" drug overdose in the United States is 3.5 times greater than that of 17 other "high income" countries "

The study showed that overdose deaths reduced life expectancy by 12% for men and 8% for women in the country.

In the United States, more than 70,000 people died in a drug overdose in 2017, according to official data that said last January that Americans were more likely to die today than in the United States. accidental overdose of opioids only in a car accident.

Deaths due to overdose of synthetic opioids (excluding methadone) doubled, likely due to the presence of fentanyl on the illegal market.