{"id":7527,"date":"2025-10-17T00:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7527\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T00:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:37:13","slug":"drug-deaths-in-florida-are-decreasing-report-says-wftv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7527\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug deaths in Florida are decreasing, report says \u2013 WFTV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced a significant decrease in drug-related deaths in 2024, according to the annual Drugs Identified in Deceased Persons Report released by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The report highlights a 14% overall reduction in drug-related deaths across the state, with opioid-caused deaths dropping by 32% and fentanyl-caused deaths decreasing by 35%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">FDLE says this report highlights a sustained downward trend in drug-related deaths since peaking in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass credited initiatives like Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 2023 State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication (SAFE) program for providing law enforcement agencies with additional resources to combat fentanyl-related deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">\u201cWe are incredibly encouraged to see these numbers continue to decline year after year,\u201d said Glass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The report indicates that fentanyl remained the leading drug involved in deaths in 2024, followed by cocaine, which saw a 19% decrease, and methamphetamine, which decreased by 24% from the previous year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">According to FDLE, the state\u2019s strategy to reduce drug-related deaths includes tougher penalties for drug traffickers and enhanced drug interdiction efforts by law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Law enforcement agencies continue to encourage the public to report suspicious drug-related activities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760661433_224_APP DOWNLOAD LOCAL_1541693885678.jpg_13622062_ver1.0.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced a significant decrease in drug-related deaths in 2024,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3049,7954,7955,7956,694,7957,695,7958,7959,6239,7960,3974,265,702,7961,703,7962,5507,7963,7964,3668,5558,1069,28,30,29,5524,571,7965,7966,2969,7967,7968,7969,555,5511,6319,7970,7971,7972,7973,7974,7975,7976,7977,7978,7979,7980,7981,2315,2007,7982],"class_list":["post-7527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-abuse","tag-addict","tag-addicted","tag-addiction","tag-background","tag-bad","tag-black","tag-buy","tag-closeup","tag-cocaine","tag-coke","tag-concept","tag-crime","tag-danger","tag-dangerous","tag-dark","tag-dealer","tag-death","tag-dependence","tag-dirty","tag-drug","tag-drugs","tag-fentanyl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-forbidden","tag-health","tag-healthy","tag-heroin","tag-illegal","tag-injection","tag-junk","tag-junkie","tag-lifestyle","tag-line","tag-medical","tag-medicine","tag-methamphetamine","tag-narcotic","tag-needle","tag-no","tag-overdose","tag-pain","tag-pharmaceutical","tag-pill","tag-pills","tag-powder","tag-syringe","tag-table","tag-treatment","tag-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7527","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=7527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}