PASCO COUNTY, Fla — Florida health officials announced the launch of the Coordinated Opioid Recovery, CORE, Wednesday afternoon in Pasco County.
The program, which is a network of addiction care and coordinated effort between different departments, is the first of its kind in the U.S. After two successful years in Palm Beach County, the network is being expanded to 12 counties across Florida, including Pasco.
During a news conference, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said last year over 8,000 people died from drug overdoses in Florida, with two-thirds of the deaths being opioid-related.
"Here in Pasco County, we've looked at the numbers and it looks as though there were about 3,400 emergency calls related to overdoses and that was associated with about 1,500 emergency department visits. So, a lot of activity here every day on average," Ladapo said.
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Health officials spoke about the program's three-prong approach to recovery being highlighted with the network, including:
- Rescue response from EMTs, medical personnel
- Stabilization and assessment of the individual patient
- Long-term treatment
In 2018, Pasco County led the entire state in overdose deaths, Fire Chief Scott Cassin said. He noted that Pasco County was given about $1 million to start this program.
Back in May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that increased the minimum mandatory sentences for trafficking fentanyl from three years to seven years, with the penalty climbing to at least 20 years when dealing in greater amounts.
Fentanyl is an extremely strong synthetic opioid created to treat pain, but the drug bought on the streets has the potential to kill in an instant.
10 Tampa Bay's Courtney Holland contributed to this report.
Watch the full news conference below: