(The Center Square) – A state appointed panel on reducing opioid deaths in Florida on Wednesday issued a list of recommendations for the governor and legislative leaders on how to help solve the crisis.
Among the recommendations is that courts collaborate with treatment providers to offer medications for opioid use disorder and to offer psychiatric telehealth services for trauma to first responders, their families and the patients they serve.
“The work we are doing here at the state and council is critical,” Seminole County Sheriff Dennis M. Lemma, chairman of the Statewide Council on Opioid Abatement, said Wednesday. “We continue to see progress across the state of Florida.”
The council was created by the Legislature in 2023 as part of a state settlement with opioid manufacturers for the purpose of “enhancing the development and coordination of state and local efforts to abate the opioid epidemic and to support the victims and families of the crisis.”
Opioid related deaths in Florida have decreased 26% since 2023, Lemma said.
More than 700,000 Naloxone overdose kits have been distributed by the state, reversing 16,000 opioid overdoses, the sheriff said.
“The state of Florida is using opioid settlement dollars and those efforts are producing measurable results – fewer overdose deaths, strong recovery networks and better access to treatment statewide,” Lemma said. “This is leaving a measurable impact on Floridians and all of our families that are witnessing this.”
In 2026, the council will hear about an effort to create a statewide training program for first responders such as firefighters and paramedics on opioid use disorder. The course would be offered as a continuing education class for first responders, Lemma said.
