Ahead of legislative session, opioid epidemic still a hot-button issue

The supply of drugs into Florida is like an out-of-control spigot, says former Hillsborough Circuit Court Judge Ashley Moody. Law enforcement works to tighten the knob and stop the flow.

“But when you do that, you still have that large puddle that has accumulated and you’ve got to figure out how to clean that up and deal with the mud and the muck that has now been generated,” said Moody, who is also running for attorney general.

The opioid epidemic was the subject of several local panels last year, and it was no different for Sarasota Tiger Bay’s first luncheon of 2018 on Thursday.

Ahead of the start of the legislative session, the epidemic, the stigma surrounding its victims and Florida’s multifaceted approach to address it were topics that four panelists discussed in front of a crowd of more than 100 at Michael’s On East.

Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight noted that when he was elected in 2009, there were 36 pain clinics in the county. After county commissioners passed a zoning ordinance to squeeze them out, he said there are just 14 highly regulated clinics left today.

“We knew when we did that, we would have a heroin problem,” he said.

Since his deputies were equipped with naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug, in late 2015 it has been used on 120 people. Eight of them died, he said.

Last year the legislature successfully passed HB 477, a law that increases penalties for fentanyl traffickers. This session’s opioid bill is “phase two,” said Albie Kaminsky, the legislative assistant of Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, who had been scheduled as one of the panelists.

Instead of again seeking the law enforcement route, HB 21 that was filed late last year addresses access, Kaminsky said.

While some have said the bill “attacks” the medical community, he said that’s not the case. The bill defines acute pain, suggests a 3-day limit on prescriptions, requires continuing education for medical professionals and opens up the prescription drug monitoring program over state lines.

An estimated 75 percent of opioid users say their addiction started with taking prescription drugs, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“The brain has been hijacked, essentially,” said Mark Fontaine, executive director of the non-profit member organization Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association.

Bill Villafranco of New Jersey spoke during a question-and-answer period about the statistic that one in four people will be affected by addiction. That statistic hit home for him, with one of his four daughters battling an addiction for 8 months. But she started using pills recreationally, he said.

“I had to quickly figure out what I was going to do. I had no idea what Narcan was,” he said of the brand name of naloxone.

He said that parents need more resources and education on what can be done.

“I wonder how many people in this room would know what to do when they got that call from the law enforcement agent saying, ‘Your daughter just overdosed. She’s at Sarasota Memorial,’ ” he said. “I bet you very few people would know what to do.”

Fontaine said there is more that should be addressed, like easily accessible naloxone, more funding for treatment and cutting out stigma associated with addicted individuals.

“Stigma is a major issue,” he said. “Why do we not deal with this? Because it’s stigma. ‘Oh, those people. That person, they’re weak. They can’t control themselves. They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.’ ”

Today’s epidemic is seeing more potent drugs that hamper one’s ability to make informed decisions, he said.

“It’s not about ‘those people,’ ” Fontaine said. “It’s about our families, and it’s about our friends, and it’s about our friends’ children and it’s about our friend’s wife. It’s about us.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2018 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Ahead of legislative session, opioid epidemic still a hot-button issue."