While the Fentanyl crisis continues to plague our communities, Attorney General Ashley Moody and multiple agencies on Wednesday said they’re on a mission to stop distribution at its source.
AG Moody said fentanyl can no longer be treated as a traditional narcotic and called for it to be declared a weapon of mass destruction.
"We are in a time of crisis as it relates to Fentanyl. The potency, coupled with its sheer availability, the mass amounts of Fentanyl now in our state, often times produced and manufactured to be attractive to our younger populations," Moody explained.
She urged people to watch out for the rainbow-colored pills, which look like sweet tarts and are laced with Fentanyl.
“Not only is this drug toxic, potent, we know that it is flooding into our state at record levels," Moody added.
In July alone, Moody said a record amount of Fentanyl was seized at the southern border. Closer to home, Pinellas County Sheriff, Bob Gualtieri, said Fentanyl is a poison wreaking havoc in our communities.
He said in the last two years alone, the sheriff's office seized 6,000 grams of Fentanyl in Pinellas county.
“To put it in even simpler terms, that’s about 13 pounds of Fentanyl. It takes about a gram, 1 gram, of Fentanyl to kill about 300 people. About 1 million people in Pinellas County, so you put all that together, it means that that could kill everybody in Pinellas County three times over," Sheriff Gualtieri said.
He adds that on a monthly basis, the department responds to about 200 overdose calls, with about 30 of them resulting in death.
“Then on top of that, another 200, we’re administering Narcan to. So, if it weren’t for Narcan how many people would be dead in Pinellas County? A whole lot. And we're losing this battle," Sheriff Gualtieri explained.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, along with agencies from across the Tampa Bay area, put an emphasis on prosecuting people involved in distributing fentanyl to the fullest extent.
“If you continue to pursue strictly for profitable purposes to victimize our Florida communities, we as Sheriffs will make sure you feel the entire weight of the criminal justice system until we can stop you and put an end to this," Sheriff Chronister said.
Attorney General Moody is calling on the community to do its part as she urged people to report suspicious activity and get treatment if they're struggling with addiction. She said waiting a moment longer is now deadlier than ever before.
