{"id":259485,"date":"2026-05-05T17:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/259485\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:48:12","slug":"orange-county-drug-deaths-drop-sharply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/259485\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County drug deaths drop sharply"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orange County leaders say years of prevention, treatment and outreach efforts are helping drive down drug-related deaths across the county.<\/p>\n

New data from the Ninth District Medical Examiner\u2019s Office<\/a> shows accidental drug deaths dropped from 528 in 2021 to 251 in 2025<\/a>, a nearly 52% decrease.<\/p>\n

The county also saw a sharp decline in fentanyl-related and opioid-related deaths. Fentanyl deaths fell from 424 in 2021 to 121 in 2025, while opioid-related deaths dropped from 457 to 143.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a public health and a public safety combined effort,\u201d said Dr. Thomas Hall, director of the Orange County Drug-Free Coalition<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those efforts include prevention programs, education, naloxone distribution, fentanyl test strips and partnerships with treatment providers across the community, Hall said.<\/p>\n

One of the county\u2019s biggest pushes has been its monthly \u201cBetter Access to Treatment Days,\u201d which bring multiple organizations together to connect people with services in one location.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the goal for our better access to treatment days is to provide access, better access to our community members that might have some prohibitive factors, like financials, work hours, and transportation,\u201d said Annie Grace Thunderbird, a licensed clinical social worker with Orange County\u2019s Drug-Free Office.<\/p>\n

The events are designed to meet people where they are, even if they are not yet ready to begin recovery, Thunderbird said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know not everyone is ready to start their recovery journey, so we want to make sure that they have the options to stay safe before they get to that point,” she said.<\/p>\n

Local treatment providers say they are also seeing more people seek help earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Central Florida Treatment Centers<\/a>, what we do is we capture them early. If they\u2019re coming in earlier now and staying longer,\u201d said Chief Operating Officer Brett D\u2019Aoust.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

County leaders say they plan to continue expanding outreach and treatment efforts to keep the numbers moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orange County leaders say years of prevention, treatment and outreach efforts are helping drive down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2967,274,3949,115,1335,139,141,140,277,278,835],"class_list":["post-259485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bryanna-howard","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}