Right now, Brevard County is doing community outreach to determine how to best use the seven-million dollars in opioid settlement funds the county received from the state.
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The funds are part of a historic national settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors worth roughly three-billion dollars to Florida over eighteen years.
The county is holding town hall meetings in every district and is asking residents to complete an opioid survey.
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“We want to hear from people who have either been victims of this, who have family members that have had addictions or just who want to, you know, give us their opinion on how we can best resolve this issue in our community,” said Brevard County Communications Director Don Walker.
On Friday, Eyewitness News spoke April Smith, who lost four family members to opioids, synthetic opioids, and other drugs.
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“We need to stop the stigma about people that use – stop throwing them in jail and get them treatment,” Smith said.
Smith is part of a small group of concerned parents that have spearheaded their own grassroots effort to educate the public and has shared donated doses of lifesaving NARCAN, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Walker said the county has roughly 2,500 overdoses each year.
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