A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville City Councilman Bill Gulliford sounded the alarm about the city’s opioid overdose crisis a few months back, and has mobilized city and outside resources in a fight to stem the epidemic of avoidable deaths.
In March and April, Gulliford scheduled well-publicized meetings to discuss what could be done to stem the tide.
Now, the next step: Gulliford wants Gov. Rick Scott to declare the opioid epidemic to be a public health emergency; to that end, he introduced a Council resolution last week.
Gulliford’s reasons are manifold.
First, the human toll: the 464 Jacksonville residents who died from opioid overdoses. Over half of them were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s — people in the primes of their lives.
Beyond the issues for the primary user, there is also an issue for the unborn. For every 10,000 live births in Duval, 450 babies are born addicted to heroin.
There’s a nicer way to say that: neonatal abstinence syndrome. But the consequences are the same.
Second, the resource toll: every two hours, the local fire and rescue department responds to an overdose call. The cost of Narcan and emergency transport is sapping finite resources.
Transport costs are way up, year over year. In 2015, $1.8M. That number will at least double in 2017.
Third, increasingly toxic cocktails: heroin is being cut with fentanyl, creating a multiplier effect, which often kills people before medics can arrive.
Gulliford wants state resources dedicated to the issue, the magnitude of which he believes is beyond local governments.
Orlando and Palm Beach County have joined this clarion call already.
Gulliford has a plan for those resources that may come from the state.
One proposal that emerged from his community meetings: a pilot program for treatment of addicts.
Intake would occur at UF Health. Treatment would be offered at Gateway Community Services and River Region Human Services. And peer-recovery specialists, trained at Jacksonville University, would play a major role.
The theory: those who have emerged from the hell of addiction, who understand the temptations of the substance and the lifestyle, are best equipped to help those struggling to push through.
The major constraint on that pilot program: capital.
Will Rick Scott step up? Will the Florida Legislature?
These are questions that are literally life and death for more people in Jacksonville than we can imagine.
