opioid overdose

Mexican cartels are trafficking "rainbow" fentanyl in pills, powder and even blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk, officials say.

The plan is for health departments in all 67 counties to have kits with two Narcan nasal sprays that can be administered without a health care provider.

Families in Palm Beach County hoped protesting would convince Sheriff Ric Bradshaw to equip his deputies with Narcan. Their pleas haven't worked — until now.

Overdoses linked to fentanyl are rising exponentially in Florida, according to the state department of health. Doctors say the epidemic is now disproportionately affecting people of color.

These steps follow recent deaths in Gadsden County from fentanyl overdoses that prompted first lady Casey DeSantis to call for a meeting to work out strategies to promote increased awareness.

The Florida Legislature balked this year at a bill that would decriminalize fentanyl test devices, which remain illegal in about half of the states under drug paraphernalia laws adopted decades ago, drug policy experts say.

A new wave of opioid deaths, fueled by fentanyl, is raising old fears in Palm Beach County. Meantime, sheriff's office policy on naloxone is an outlier in the state.

The bill would allow naloxone to be administered by school staff trained to recognize an opioid overdose.

After a 26% increase in opioid overdoses in Florida over the previous year,. Project Opioid founder Andrae Bailey says the pandemic accelerated the real problem: the synthetic opioid fentanyl flooding the markets.

Overdose rates were on the rise before the COVID pandemic, but last year's lockdowns exacerbated the issue.

Medicine cabinets at Florida schools could get a new addition: an antidote for people who overdose on opioids such as heroin.A bill that will be…

Overdose deaths started to level off near the end of 2017 and are "finally bending in the right direction," says Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, citing early data.