Florida seeing sharp drop in overdose deaths, as demands for treatment persist | Investigations

FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)—The Sunshine State is outpacing the rest of the nation in the dramatic drop in drug overdose deaths.

The latest numbers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show Florida saw a 46% drop in fentanyl-related deaths in the last year.

But those numbers don’t show the full story on the grips of drug addiction.

The number of Americans dying from a drug overdose last year reached its lowest level since 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

But experts who work in the field every day tell WINK Investigates the number of people seeking drug treatment remains the same.

One Collier County man knows firsthand about the secret weapon keeping people alive.

Matt Johnson suffered from the grips of addiction for nearly two decades. He tells WINK Investigates it started with prescription pills as a teenager, before he eventually moved to fentanyl and heroin.

Johnson found help at St. Matthew’s House, where he now works to help others get sober.

“I lost my job, I was homeless,” Johnson said. “I was 122 pounds looking in the mirror, and I was like, I need to get some help. But I was never going to stop, because I had such good income coming in. But then, when I lost that job, then I had nothing, and I was just, you know, rock bottom, and I was like, I got to get some help.”

Johnson tells WINK News he would have died years ago if it weren’t for a complete stranger who gave him Narcan in the middle of a drug overdose.

Narcan is an opioid drug overdose reversal medication.

“If that guy wouldn’t have been there, you know, my parents wouldn’t have their son right now,” Johnson said. “I got a six-month-old daughter that she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that one guy, you know, seeing what happened and, you know, coming over and (giving me) Narcan.”

Florida expanded the availability of the drug overdose reversal medication four years ago, in the midst of the drug overdose epidemic.

That’s one reason experts say Florida saw a whopping 46% drop in fentanyl drug overdose deaths, compared to the 14% drop nationwide.

Every time we can bring somebody back with Narcan it gives us once more chance to try to get them to transfer on their life,” said Ben Bridges, the CEO of St. Matthew’s House, which runs a year-long recovery program. “It gives us once more opportunity to try to begin them on their journey toward restoration. So, we’ll continue to use it.”

Bridges says while Narcan is saving more lives, that doesn’t mean there’s been a drop in substance abuse.

“The number of men and women coming to us seeking help out of opioid use addiction or fentanyl addiction, really has remained pretty steady for us,” Bridges said.

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who helped spearhead many of the state’s anti-fentanyl and anti-drug trafficking efforts, says she’s now pushing federal lawmakers to take Florida’s lead to see a nationwide drop in overdose deaths.

“It’s a great thing to announce we have a very, very large drop in overdoses,” Moody said. “But we can’t stop. We can’t take our foot off the gas.”

Despite the successful efforts, nearly 70,000 Americans died of a drug overdose last year.