Fentanyl is fueling the worst drug crisis in United States history.

Severity in Pensacola is downright frightening.

Our area leads the state in fentanyl overdose deaths.

We'll hear from those affected and what's being done to combat the issue on this edition of In Studio.

Fentanyl Crisis in Pensacola.

Fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid, is the leading cause of death for Americans between the age of 18 and 49.

The issue is especially acute in the Pensacola area.

Our medical district has the highest overdose rate in the state.

On today's show, we'll hear stories of life destroyed.

What's being done to fight the problem?

And where you can go for help.

In our first segment, we're joined by three people that are intimately affected by the fentanyl crisis and who now run organizations that are dedicated to overcoming this scourge.

Stephanie Shepherd lost her son to a fentanyl overdose in 2022 and is the founder of Hope Above Fear.

Bradford Bishop is the president of Offentsive Corp.. His brother passed away from a fentanyl overdose in 2023.

And Melissa Moyer Pusch, the founder of Jamie's mom's house, lost her son to an opioid addiction in 2020.

Thank you all so much for joining us to talk about this very important topic.

2016 when you passed.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

Okay.

So first, let's kind of establish what is fentanyl and what is the issue.

So medically prescribed, it's a legal drug for to fight severe pain and it's about 100 times more potent than morphine.

So super strong.

But the problem is the illegal forms of it that are out there.

So what is out there and what's causing so many problems, Brian?

Well, fentanyl, exactly.

But it's finding its way into many other drugs because of how addictive it is.

It's a it's an opioid.

So it has the most powerful addiction that we've ever seen as far as drugs go.

And a lot of things are opioids and lead to the same sort of addiction that becomes a fentanyl addiction is being found in meth, is being found in cocaine, it's being found in pills that are shaped like a certain pill, but not fentanyl.

And it turns out it is fentanyl.

And there it could be a Xanax, it can be an Adderall.

And there's even been reports that we're seeing in the news of it being found in marijuana.

So a lot of times people don't even know they're taking it.

Right?

Right.

In fact, with our organization, one of the benefits, what we do is we help fund cremations for families that do not have the money to bury their loved ones.

And the last one that we did it was due to an older gentleman, but pot on the street and it was laced with that.

Well, all of you are intimately familiar with the tragedies that this can bring about.

Stephanie, I want you to tell us about your son, Isaiah.

And so Isaiah started struggling with substance use when he was 15.

And we continued trying to look for help for him with dead ends.

There was nothing locally.

I'll just go out and say that there is still nothing locally for adolescents.

And so whenever he turned 18 and was arrested, we were able to get him and to get him into rehab.

And from there he left.

He was diagnosed with a drug induced psychosis, of which I'm not sure what substance caused.

And within two weeks, he purchased something that contained fentanyl.

At that time, I had not heard of fentanyl.

I was not familiar with that.

I thought my son was smoking pot occasionally taking acid or shrooms.

I did not think that he was doing anything beyond that.

Well, I mean, and drinking.

But whenever he the day that he passed, I. I searched.

I searched him, and.

And I found a bag that looked like cocaine.

It was later reported that it had zero traces of cocaine.

It was it was fentanyl and actually xylazine.

Well, I'm sorry for your loss, Brad.

In your case, it was your brother, Travis.

Tell us a little bit about him and what happened to.

Yeah.

So my brother struggle with substance use.

We both grew up here in Pensacola and, you know, endured everything that the streets had to offer.

And, you know, that's drugs, that's partying.

And he was he ended up becoming addicted to Xanax and he wanted to go to rehab about it.

And he went to rehab twice and the second time when he got out, it was Mother's Day of last year.

Five days later, he had passed away and he went to rehab for a Xanax problem.

And he got out.

And five days later, he and I guess I don't know if he wanted to go celebrate his, you know, time in rehab, he started moving around people that he should have distanced himself from and fell back into the same comfort zone he was in before.

And we don't know the details, but he was found with a bag and he was in my mother's backyard.

He was by himself and he couldn't get in the house.

And I remember him walking right up to the camera and he grabbed the camera and he said, Why me?

Why me?

And then he collapsed and my mother found him.

45 minutes later.

He had already passed away.

But she she tried to give him CPR.

She cleaned dried environment out of his nose and his eyes and came CPR and and it was too late, you know.

I'm sorry for your loss.

And Melissa, your son, Jamie, can you tell me a little bit about.

Yes.

Well, it started out with his addiction, probably around the same time, 15 years old, probably ninth grade.

But it started out quite differently because it was adults giving my son OxyContin at parties.

There was a whole ring of parents that thought it was all right for their kids to to party in the house.

And and that was one of the things that they were passing out, not to all of our you know, we didn't know, but there were plenty of times that I would pull my child out of that situation.

It led to much harder things in it.

And he ultimately died in in someone's laundry room with a with a parent present.

And they were too afraid to call 911.

That's why it's so important that we get that message out that you will not be in trouble if you call 911.

They could have saved his life.

And it does become the the whole vicious cycle of, you know, either you're leaving rehab or you're going you've got a bad urine down your back in prison.

Now I'm running because I also have bad urine.

So I'm on the run and just the same cycle.

And that's what we found.

How easy is it to slip from somewhat normal lives into into these depths?

I mean, is it it seems like it's almost like it can happen too easily.

Is that is that kind of the experiences that you've had?

Yes.

Yeah, I would say so.

In what ways is it is it just different things that that affect lives?

And what are the warning signs that maybe would have would have helped in some of your cases?

There's so many.

One with my brother.

I feel like, you know, we went through this period of time where we were kind of demonizing people that would enable their loved one.

We called it enabling and we kind of, you know, that the enabler was getting gossiped about just the same way that the individual with the addiction would be gossiped about.

And it really I look at with my sister and my brother, both of them struggled with addiction and my sister would be what you could call enabled.

My mother protected her and kept her safe.

My brother, on the other hand, he everybody turned their back on him.

My sister.

So she's doing great.

And my brother's not.

And so for me personally, that that's directly how it's been displayed to me.

Yeah.

So all of you have started organizations now, Stephanie, you started Hope about fear.

Why did you start it?

And what is the focus of your organization?

I would say within two days after my son passed, I just had this flame live inside of me.

That scream that other parents need to know, that our youth need to know the reality.

And I spent 48 hours of just researching what fit and all was right.

I didn't have the autopsy report back, but the police stated that it looked like a fit and all death they use this term on.

He had a fit and all pose.

And I googled that to see what is it that they were saying.

And there's just a certain way that the body appears after whenever it dies from fentanyl.

And so I that is I mean, I just started talking with people and talking with friends, talking with coworkers, and just saying that we have to do something.

We have to do something.

And I think I just I said it enough that there was a group of people that said, you're right, we do.

And let's let's do this.

And and so by January of 23, we were an official 5013, three.

And since then we have our focus has been on three areas promoting awareness, providing assistance and and support for families.

And I'm glad to go in more depth of what those areas look like.

But yeah, yeah, what I was looking back to, you know, some of the things that you do Brad you started Offentsive Corp, What was your reason for getting it started and what are the things that you focus on?

Oh, a lot like Stephanie It was we were at the funeral and my brother's funeral, me and friends and loved ones were standing there looking at him in the casket and saying, We have to do something.

We have to do something at that time.

We had no idea what that would even look like, but it was standing there at the casket and from that, it involved what we call street intervention and street outreach.

And this is stems from when I used to go into homeless camps and to hotels looking for one of my friends who was addicted to fentanyl and trying to just change his mind.

You know, and say, hey, don't do that.

Why are you doing this?

Like all the the rhetoric that we always that we always use, but not knowing actually how to help.

If he were to say yes and that kind of led in what we do now, he is now clean for over a year and he's a part of our organization.

And what we do is we go into the homeless camps, the hotels, areas of high drug activity.

We pass out Narcan, fentanyl test strips, and we tell people about the resources.

And believe it or not, a lot of people do want to help.

But there's this gap between who the help is and the people that really, really need it.

The homeless community, the people that have really been brought to the bottom that addiction can take you.

They have no way to even understand that these resources are available until you come meet them where they are and tell them.

And Melissa, you started Stevens mom's house.

Yes.

You know, how did that get started and what's your focus of your group?

So how it got started?

I actually announced it at his funeral, not even knowing again what it would look like.

I said, you know, I stood up and said, we have to do something as a community, as a family.

And then you see that after the funeral, everybody forgets.

And I went through like a few years after that of really just being alone, really just dealing with my own pain.

The phone calls stop.

And that's how be somebody somebody ever came about, like, I want to be there for these people.

What has happened is that the whole family dynamic has been taken out of addiction in itself, and we're kind of pushed to the side.

So through the whole thing where we're pushed to the side and then after we lose our loved one, there's no place for us either.

So that be somebody.

Somebody is a really big deal.

The problem in Pensacola is huge.

Yes.

We talked about the numbers here.

Some of the numbers, Escambia County's rate of 75 drug drug overdose deaths per 100,000 residents is more than double the state average of 34.9.

In 2023, Escambia County EMS had over 3900 opioid overdose calls and 19% increase from the year before.

This year already taping this in early August, 2400 plus almost 2500 calls, 37 fatalities already.

So why I mean, from your experience, why is this so bad?

Why is it especially bad in the Pensacola area?

I mean, I mean, I'll just say that from from my experience, it's we there's zero education in our schools.

We have not been talking to our youth about substance use and about the about the effects of substance use.

What to look for.

If you have a friend that's having a problem with substance use.

We haven't been talking to our parents about, you know, what what to look for or where to go or when to seek help.

Those conversations have not been been had in our community for well over a decade.

And so and as we're seeing, you know, that that that our youth are becoming addicted to substances earlier and earlier, which then ends up developing, you know, a you know, an addiction.

And so then we end up with people living on the streets and that, you know, and and and and these crappy hotels and without jobs.

And it's just this, you know, like the cycle.

But what if, you know, what if we started by educating our youth, by giving them the knowledge before they ever even touch a substance?

Well, how do you reach people?

I mean, what have you guys been trying to do to to reach more people, to just get the word out and then start everywhere up?

And we are everywhere trying to to bring the knowledge that's needed.

We do town halls.

We do all events together and separately.

We we make ourselves visible.

We we let our hearts be heard.

And really, the demographics, the type of people that affect there, it's all different walks of life.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So what's been what's been effective?

The methods and let's talk about your individual organizations and like the programs you have.

So what are some of the things that that you've been doing Brad With your program that's been effective?

So getting the Narcan into these locations is is very important.

One person even told us this is our homeless camp.

We're just going to sell it.

And I said, I don't I don't care if you sold if it's out here, it's at least it's here.

You know, it can be used.

But getting people into it, whether it's mental health help or detox, maybe if it's a crisis situation, we will transport them to the CRF or introducing them to core.

So, you know, they can be seen wherever they're at and this can be a county and receive medically assisted treatment to help them kind of bridge off of the fentanyl addiction, getting people in the rehab.

And we do the work for them because a lot of times they don't even have a phone.

And if they do, they can only use it with free wi fi at McDonald's.

But they're in an active addiction, so there's no way for them to even focus on the exit strategy.

That you mentioned.

If we had Narcan, just exactly what is Narcan?

How effective is it and how do you get it?

Narcan is a reversal agent.

And in the instance of an opioid overdose, it's very easy to use.

It's a spray.

It's a nasal spray.

You just spray it in their nose, wait a couple of minutes and see if see if they start coming back.

And then if not, you repeat, it's available through all of us.

It's available at the Health Department, Lake View.

Hope and Clinic as well.

Healthhub Yeah, there's it's available but again, it's you know, people are not taking time out of their active addiction to go seek.

Mm hmm.

So meeting people where they are is is the way to get it.

I hope it's just the public as well.

Today.

And notice that they were selling it for $50 and I was so annoyed.

That is terrible.

But you can get it at different places for free.

Yes.

So people need to do that.

That's right.

The health clinic.

And where else can you get.

Health and health clinics?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I want to talk a little about Jimmy's mom's house and some of the programs you have, like, what are your methods?

What what do you what do you do to to help people?

So we have an online support group for people that lost their loved ones due to addiction or people that have people actively in addiction.

We put some of our resources that we reach out if if a parent or a loved one reaches out to us and says, hey, our son is ready to go to rehab, what do you have available?

Then of course, we reach out to the resources that we have as well.

We have and also like I mentioned earlier, we have taken up for cremation.

We also bring back in the week to their the wake and the service.

Sometimes we'll provide right at our Center for Excellence or else will bring follow up food, which a lot of people do participate in that as well.

We do one backpack drive a year in honor of my son James, who left his backpack out.

And that always has a message in it that says somebody at home is waiting for your phone call.

So those are some of the things.

Stephanie, how about hope above fear?

You know what?

What are some of the programs and things that you run?

So there's there's several things that that that we're doing right now as far as awareness goes.

Our big project is, is our our our awareness presentation.

So we have two different presentations created.

One is for adolescents and one is one is for adults.

And so the message is is pretty much the same, but it's geared towards a different audience.

We did recently receive a grant from Sunday's child to assist with video production that will be included within those within that presentation.

And then we also we also have once a month a Choose Your Story gathering and the goal with that is to give our youth something to do.

That was a message that I received from from, you know, like from from a group of teens of what can we do as a community and they said we need more things to do.

And so so we've been doing that since January of this year at the age range has been geared towards high school.

Our goal is that starting in January of 25, that will have 214 middle school, one for high school.

We also started a parent support group where once a month we meet to just be together.

We have a brunch and it was moms for two months.

And then now there's next coming this month actually we will it's open to all parents and then we'll split off into groups of of five dads and moms.

And that is the third Saturday of every month.

And then we've just partnered with Curry House, our local teen shelter.

And we will be bringing in our awareness program and our outreach there once a month as well the beginning of of every month.

And I'm sure I'm reading some things out that.

All your programs are doing a lot all your organizations are doing a lot.

So how about some success stories?

I mean, what what kind of success stories have you had where you've been able to to affect people you've been able to to save lives?

Right.

So actually, we measure success in increments.

And it's it's all depending on the barriers that individuals facing.

If we get somebody into detox that would be considered a success story, somebody that graduates a rehab, that would be a success story.

But there's so many different barriers and layers to recovery and it looks different for each individual.

So we measure and what we call impacts, we have impact reports and that's just the next step, reaching the next step.

However small, just positive progress in the right direction.

Melissa I'm so I'm going to use somebody that is a volunteer now as an example.

Her name is Jolene, and she started out where she just joined the group because she was in an addiction and she needed some support.

And then down the line while she was sober, she lost her son to a fentanyl overdose.

And then she came down.

So she's from our peer group.

And then she came down to our trauma retreat, which is something else that we offer the trauma retreat.

And she then went back home after the trauma retreat and then started her own fundraiser.

As far as she's going to be doing a motorcycle poker run for August 31st.

And I would consider that full circle.

You know, that's a that's pretty wild.

And we put up a billboard in honor of her son as well.

That's something else that we do is put up billboards.

And that's definitely what What kind of successes have you seen with your organization?

I'm just going to use an example also.

So with one of our Choose Your Story events, I would say the one that we did in July, I looked at the picture of the group of kids that came and they ranged from the age of 11 to 24 that for that particular event and when I looked at the I think there was 16 to 18 teens in this in this in this picture, I could tell I know every single one of their stories.

I know the challenge that every single one of them has faced, whether it be a substance use disorder that they dealt with and have now overcome, whether it's one that they are still battling, whether it is a sister who lost her brother, whether it's a sister, his brother is in prison because of his substances or a sister.

His brother is currently on the street because he is still getting high, whether it's, you know, one of them her her her mother OD'd and died from that.

Now, one of them, you know, their father just recently got out of rehab.

His liver was failing.

All of these kids have a story.

And it's been they have been impacted, whether it was themselves or someone that they love.

But you can't tell on this picture.

They all look happy.

They all had a good a good experience.

They all had a moment to just be kids.

Yeah.

And that picture is just it.

It is so beautiful to just know that whatever path that we're on right now does not have to continue.

We can at any point say, I don't want to live like this.

I want something different.

We just as a community have to come together and provide that services so that they can can choose a different path.

How important is it to take these steps early, like we what would you say to someone out there or their child or their brother or sister they see struggling but they're not sure?

I mean, what's the most important thing to have in your mind about when to to make a call, when to reach out to one of your organizations or somebody else?

Well, I can say very early when we were at that National Night Out, I remember somebody coming up to the table and she said, Oh, no, I don't need that to narc yet.

And I looked down at her two small children and I said, Ma'am, let's talk about this.

You unfortunately, in the world that we live in, you may need this.

And she was she reevaluated then?

Yeah.

So what remains the biggest barriers?

One of the biggest barriers to us finding success for us, turning it around in this area to stop this crisis.

More prevention.

Prevention looks a lot a lot of different ways prevention can be doing something about the current status of addiction and then also getting to the kids early.

I mean, I'm going to speak for myself here, but I was 12 years old and I was beyond just, you know, experimenting.

I would smoke weed consistently.

And I don't know if I'm the only one in my neighborhood.

Certainly seem to be like that right.

But it seems like as a society, we think that this is all taking place later on.

But I mean, it's it's middle school.

Maybe fifth grade elementary.

It's all comes to like, you know, it all is introduced in different ways.

Yeah.

And what would you like to see happen.

For and and I'll just like, you know add to that is the stigma, you know, is that it's so easy to to say that's happening on that part of town.

Right.

That's happening in that neighborhood.

But it is literally happening everywhere.

It is happening in East Hill and in North Hill and in Brownsville and in Gulf Breeze.

And, you know, it is happening all over with all demographics, with all races.

It does not matter like our our our youth, they they are experimenting.

And then that experimentation because drugs are more potent today, that experimentation is very quickly turning to a substance use disorder very quickly, I think much quicker than it did, you know, like in the past.

And then we also have youth that are that are experimenting for the first time who are dying because they got something that had fentanyl, you know, And so, you know, if we even just leave the substance problem out and we just think of that first time, you know, they didn't like they didn't even make it beyond that.

And so we as parents, as a community, we have to acknowledge the fact that this is happening now.

What are we going to do about it?

It is not because that person was less than it's not it's not going to not happen to you because you're better.

It it can happen to anybody.

And so we have to stop saying, oh, not me or not my child.

And I believe that it should be a part of teaching with mental that mental disorders or mental illness just put that right there with it because that's the next step.

Yeah.

Well, you mentioned the schools.

What would you like to see happen in the school.

Education and you know what?

And I'm not the only one.

We've recently had done a dentist, a survey, and it's just available online for anybody to fill out.

And we now have over 100 respondents in our community want there to be drug awareness education in the schools.

Our parents want this.

I have not talked to a teen yet that says what?

What?

You know, like, what are you talking about?

There's no drugs in my school.

There are drugs in our schools.

Kids are getting high in the bathroom.

They are getting high.

You know, at the bus stop.

They are getting high in their cars.

All of them know.

But the children are being exposed if they're not, you know, And so, you know, we have to to to address this head on both as parents, as well as educators.

I know nothing will ever take away the pain, take away, you know, bring back your loved ones.

But the work that you're doing now, you know, how fulfilling is that for you?

How meaningful is it, what you're able to do, how you're able to help people?

I get think a lot.

I appreciate it, but it you know, part of me knows that I would never be doing this if if I didn't lose my brother.

So it's just this it's this weird place to be in.

And, you know, once it happens to you, you change.

And yes, you know, your whole perspective changes.

I really can't explain it, but I know it's understood by a lot of people that have experienced a lot.

And it's the truth.

I never thought I'd be a poster child for fatness.

I never did.

And as fulfilling as it is, nothing will ever take away the space that he had.

My heart and still does.

But I know that he is watching and it's real proud.

And if he were here today, he would be doing just what we're all doing, saving lives.

Stephanie, what does it mean to you to do this work?

I would say like so the last three months that my son was alive and he was really struggling, I would say to him, to his face, I would text him, you know, this is not how this is not how your story needs to be going.

You know, at any point you can change.

I would say those things.

And and I believed I really did believe he was going to make it to the other side.

That is, you know, these things in his youth.

We were just going to laugh about them.

And ten years, you know, it was a phase and and I just I just will never forget, you know, just holding him for the last time and and just, you know, feeling like this was not how his story was supposed to end.

And so part of my mission with Hope above fear is, you know, is is spreading that message.

You know, like this is not how your story has to end.

And it's my connection with him.

So any time that I do anything, you know, it's keeping his memory alive.

And and.

They're just big things, meaning.

Connected now.

Well, thank you all so much for sharing your stories.

I know it is very difficult.

And thank you for all the amazing work you're doing to make a difference.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

There are many medical and government organizations dedicated to fighting the fentanyl crisis in Pensacola.

Coming up in our next segment, we'll hear what's being done and where you can go for help.

The Escambia County Sheriff's Office recently raided two drug houses with enough fentanyl to kill 1.5 million people.

Escambia EMS continues to report an alarming increase in nine one calls related to overdoses for ages 19.

And under law enforcement, along with medical organizations, are key players in trying to alleviate Pensacola's fentanyl crisis.

Joining us for this segment, Chief Deputy Andy Hobbs with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.

Joey Kerman, program lead for EMS Corps, a program that provides supportive services for overdose patients.

And so Anita McDonald, director of medication assisted Treatment at the Lakeview Center.

So thank you all for joining us.

As we talked about in the first segment, the problem is nationwide, but it's especially severe here in the Pensacola area.

So you guys are you guys see it firsthand.

So just how bad is it?

How severe is it in this area?

It's it's an epidemic.

It touches every family.

You know, I get asked all the time, is it something that hits the poor people, the wealthier people?

It hits everybody.

There's no one I know personally that has not been touched by fentanyl.

Is it overdose or is it addiction?

So I think it's that's the biggest issue, too, is it touches every facet of our community.

I've had very close personal friends lose a son to fentanyl.

He he took another drug that he didn't know had fentanyl in it.

He overdosed and died.

Sheriff Simmons had a family member overdose on fentanyl.

So, again, it just touches everyone.

You know, Junior out there, you know, in the field all the time.

So.

So what do you see?

There isn't a socioeconomic.

There isn't a zip code that's not affected, whether it be we go from pretty to all the way to century everywhere, whether they knowingly are or don't know what they're taking or suspect that they're taking something else.

And it's quite frankly sad because a lot of times people don't realize that someone had a problem until we're there when it's too late.

And so we need to.

What are you seeing with people that come to see you?

I rejoice in the fact that we're treating over a thousand people who are struggling with opioid use disorder.

However, I know that's a small population of the people in our community that are struggling and this is home for us.

So it strikes hard.

And as my colleagues have said, it's a national problem, an epidemic that we're in the fight of.

Do we have a sense to why?

Why is it so bad here?

Why is this one of the worst places for it?

I wish I could answer that.

If I could answer that, that would be a silver bullet.

But I think it's bad everywhere.

I think that in some situations, they're not putting the.

Some states don't have the effort.

They don't have the unified front there.

Maybe they're not looking at it the same way the state of Florida is.

But I will tell you this.

The state of Florida is trying to really be on the cutting edge in the forefront of how to combat it.

And I think it also we're very close to I-10, so a lot of the drugs are coming through I-10.

There's a lot of different aspects of why we're seeing the amount we are seeing.

But if we could really pinpoint that, we could probably solve the problem.

Mm hmm.

When I look at the data collectively from all EMS agencies, you can definitely see it along the I-10 corridor.

I see it hotspots from mobile all the way to Jacksonville.

And I agree with Chief Hobbs, because Florida has really taken a more progressive approach to it.

Yes, you can.

You can try and arrest your way through it, but you also have to be able to affect the demand.

And that's where programs like the one that I'm a part of and with this one is doing, they're really, really making the impact on both sides of the equation.

While law enforcement is working to help find that silver bullet, that we can still make sure that they have no product to sell.

Yeah, and I know you all work together.

Right?

And I guess from the first segment, you work with them very often they have organizations.

How important is that part to try to make a dent in this?

Advocacy is pivotal.

This is people who struggle from addiction are not a statistic.

We could lay out all the statistics here, and that is important data for funding purposes, for resource purposes.

But these are people right?

And so part of what keeps addiction is the lack of conversation about it.

So, yes, we're in a pipeline, but there's also this overwhelming stigma in certain cultures.

And because we're not at the dinner tables talking about it.

So to get to the dinner table, we do these outreaches like this to where we can increase awareness and where we can band together to expand the conversation about what's going on in education and prevention.

So CORE is a relatively new or I think 2022 is when it started.

Coordinated opioid recovery.

What's the what is core and what are you guys trying.

In so core as a program that was product of Governor DeSantis.

We were part of the initial rollout of the program where EMS would become actively involved in getting folks access to treatment where it used to be.

We would run somebody, they would overdose, we'd Narcan them, take them to the hospital, we'd see them again probably in about an hour, maybe two.

Literally had a shift at Narcan, the same individual.

Three times I said something has to give something has to give.

And so this program, while we came out, we were given a certain set of criteria.

That criteria was we want to give them Suboxone, a medicated assisted therapy to help the folks get into the cycle of recovery.

But Suboxone isn't is isn't what you would think of.

It's like, oh, you're trading one drug for the other.

All it does is allow them to not have the craving to feel sick so they can then start focusing on the road to recovery.

So really what we became is a stopgap.

So we it made sense.

We were the ones running the overdose calls.

Of course, we would have access to the population.

We can get them enrolled.

And what we have found is that from not even just from our 911 calls, but actually from other patients, we have seen such a success.

We really didn't see our first patient until 2023 in April.

We have now successfully transitioned our 130th person who is now on the road to recovery.

No longer a statistic, but someone who's becoming an advocate and a part of the solution.

We've been recognized at the state level and nationally as actually one of the best programs in the state of Florida.

Just spoke to a conference of the National Association of EMS State Officials, and they were blown away just by hearing the narratives and the stories.

So what about at Lakeview, the program that you run there?

You know what?

What are the treatments that you do?

What are you trying to do to help people?

I'm the director of our Medication Assisted Treatment program, which includes one of the FDA approved medications like Suboxone.

And the nature of opiate addiction is that it is significantly difficult for individuals to independently practice abstinence on their own.

So what these medications do is help to mitigate withdrawal, chase away cravings.

So that they can go back to normal functioning.

And the important piece to mention is that it's a treatment program.

Healing is really at the center of it.

It's not just handing out medications.

It's handing out hope is connecting with a counselor because many individuals experience addiction as a side effect of trauma.

So maybe this is the first time that their brain is regulated enough to cope with those those events, process them appropriately with professionals, and to be in a community of people who are or who are getting better.

Because that's the myth here that people don't get better.

They do.

And so now what we're seeing is a push towards people getting better and spreading that word that I'm getting better.

And we're doing that in our in our in our medication assisted treatment environment.

So where does all that the fentanyl come from?

And I know that's a big thing you deal with trying to stop it and locate it.

How do you trying to do that and where's it coming from?

It's coming from the southern border.

Fentanyl is not produced in the United States.

It's coming through the southern border.

We, the Sheriff Simmons, has a commitment with the federal and state agencies.

We have almost doubled the size of our narcotics unit.

And when you speak to those people who are on the front lines of this, it is coming through the southern border.

And then when it comes to the southern border, they use pill pill mills, they use pill presses.

They use all these different ways to introduce it into different drugs.

They'll introduce it into meth.

They'll introduce it into cocaine.

They'll put it into marijuana or they'll put it into a pill press and make it look like it's a Xanax or make it look like it's a lower tab.

Some of the posts that we have on our social media, you see Sheriff Simmons, where we you talked about those two houses.

We kick the doors in and we got over three kilos of of fentanyl that were those had pill presses in those homes.

They were pressing that fentanyl into other things.

So some people may know there's fentanyl in that drug they're taking, but others may not.

And they're adding the fentanyl because it gives a higher level of a high and it makes their customers more addicted.

They don't care if it kills them.

These people who are dealing in fentanyl care nothing about our families.

They care nothing about our communities.

They only care about the money they're making.

And that's why you have to have programs like these and you have to have enforcement.

We're not going to arrest our way out of this problem.

What we have to do is make the punishment high enough that people don't want to sell it, and then we can also get them into the programs that help them.

You know, we just did a search warrant two weeks ago on Talladega while we were there doing the search warrant.

Two of those people overdosed on fentanyl.

If our deputies and inmates would not have been there for a search warrant, those two people would have been dead.

So good luck and bad luck on their part that we were kicking in their door because they're drug dealers.

But good luck that we were there and the EMS was there to save their lives.

But sadly, like he was talking about, once those people get out of jail, unless they get into a program, they're going to get overdosed again and again and again.

And it's something that you can't explain.

But the sheriff's office is working with our community partners, and a level of enforcement like this community has never seen again.

You can see it on our social media platforms where we put it out and we put it out there to educate people what it looks like, who these people are in their community.

Because again, what she was talking about it that it's not talked about at the dinner table.

We have to put it out there for everyone to see who's doing it, who's selling it, who's enabling it.

And I mean, that's the only reason or the only way we're ever going to really tackle this such a thing like this and really get true change.

And in terms of like saving people, Narcan obviously is a huge thing.

So it's we talked about it earlier.

Talk a little bit about Narcan.

Where can you get it?

How important is it if to have it if you're in jeopardy of these scenarios?

It's almost becoming as important is as a tourniquet, as a Band-Aid.

It's part of your first aid kit at this point in time, sadly enough.

You can get it easily over the counter.

That is at a cost.

However, you can go plenty of places.

Community Health.

I know Lakeview Center.

They have plenty of free Narcan.

No questions asked.

And that's important because you don't know where you're going to walk and take a step.

My wife has it, not because any of us are dealing with it.

It's because we never know where you're going to be, where you're going to find somebody.

And quite frankly, not to sound too alarming, but the fact is simple is that the drugs are getting so strong that the amount of Narcan that it takes, sometimes it's not enough.

Right.

It's harm reduction.

And there's a myth that, oh, you know, if if a person has Narcan, it's just facilitating their next use.

It's not fun to be Narcan.

It doesn't feel good.

And the truth is, there have been individuals who, on their 10th time having been Narcan, is when they decide for foot for change into into treatment.

It's what we call harm reduction.

It's just one of those avenues for that.

There's no test strips as well.

The language that we use towards individuals who are struggling with addiction, as you notice, I say individuals, people, we call them by their names, That's harm reduction.

We are having conversations about needle exchanges, whatever we can do to keep people alive, that's how we thrive in Narcan.

Does that at the sheriff's office, do some outreach programs and different things that you guys try to do to to reach people?

We do.

We we start to partner with our community outreach programs.

We also donate money using or let funds or let funds.

Law Enforcement Trust fund is where we seize money from drug forfeitures and we turn it back into the community, into those programs that really educate and help.

We talk about it in all of our coffee with the cops.

Are movie nights and all those different organized opportunities we have for outreach.

We bring our partners with us to talk about those things and see where people can see the warning signs, see if there's people in their family that may be having struggles with addiction so that they don't go down those certain roads.

And I think that's the biggest thing, is giving an opportunity to get in front of people and having your partners get in front of people and really go as a unified front.

That is the only way we're going to do this.

Nobody can be able to fix this on their own.

We can't arrest our way out of this.

They can't treat their way out of this.

You have to tackle it from all the sides.

And again, Sheriff Simmons, use the outreach program.

We use the funding that we get from drug forfeiture to give to organizations who are doing it Again, it is extremely important to us.

And we know what the men and women of law enforcement, first responders are dealing with this every day, because that's another thing we don't talk about is the danger that these first responders go into dealing with it, because quickly, a law enforcement officer, EMS, fire can be overtaken by going into a house, has spent it all in it.

And next thing you know, we're trying to treat our own, trying to that have never consumed any illegal narcotic.

But now they're being influenced by it because they're in these houses and all of our deputies carry anarchy in on them.

It's really a an epidemic.

Like I don't think we ever thought we would see because of the level of deadliness that fentanyl brings.

You guys are doing a lot of things.

What are the barriers, you know, for you guys?

What are some of the barriers that that are holding back?

More progress?

Stigma.

Stigma.

That stigma is a big one.

The people are afraid to have the conversation.

It's it's whispered about and it needs to be very vocal whether we're having to scream it from the top of our lungs.

And you don't have to be afraid to have these conversations with our high schoolers and our middle schoolers, because whether parents like it or not, they're being exposed to it.

How much are you monitoring their online traffic?

They're buying drugs off of Instagram.

I mean, Instagram.

But this is the this is the world we live in.

And so if we become more comfortable having the conversation about the problem, we can also be more comfortable having a conversation about the solution.

I always tell people no one started life saying, Hey, I want to be a junkie when I grow up.

That's that's not what people want.

There is a trauma.

There's a story, an event that that caused that cycle that they're not sitting at the table part of us, but they deserve to be part of the table.

And once we start treating people with kindness and treating them as human beings, they're more likely to engage on the road to recovery.

And I will tell you, law enforcement, they're not scary.

They're here to help.

And every law enforcement officer I've ever encountered that it's a medical issue.

They recognize the fact that it's a medical issue.

Now, if you're the one that's dealing it, you deserve to have everything thrown at you because the people who are pushing the stuff have no care for human life.

I've had plenty of patients tell me that they go into the camps using these people as testers, and if they die, they cut back the amount that they put in.

What about the resources?

Are the resources there?

Do you have, you know, enough people to be able to to help all the people that need help?

That's a good question.

We we don't have enough people.

We that's the truth.

We are lucky that in this in our surrounding counties, we do have funding and we do have stakeholders who are recognizing this as a problem, giving us funding like the state opioid response, which later Center uses a lot of I have overspent and I'm not afraid to say that because we have to.

No one should be turned away.

But we also need to focus on where the gaps.

And for me, unfortunately, those gaps are in the places that don't believe they're a part of the continuum of care.

Our jail system, our hospitals, although they do good work, not denying that there is still a gap.

And then being a part of the continuum of care.

I'm not quite sure if those places yet see themselves with that that they are, because a lot of our research referral sources come from those entities.

So when we start collaborating a little bit more, we might even see more powerful connection to the path of recovery for some of our people.

How about some successes, You know, some of the things that you've seen, some that the efforts of the outreach is the thing, the successes that you've seen come from this maybe preventing or or lessening some some of the issues you've seen out there.

Preventing.

I think it's allowing people to say, hey, I'll come forward and tell us, tell law enforcement where it's coming from.

I will be a part of the solution.

My family member, a lot of it happens when families are impacted by it.

They'll say, hey, my son or daughter had a friend.

Who's this?

Here's their cell phone.

Maybe we can get some information from that.

I think when it comes in, it affects you.

It's easy to think it's a bad situation until it comes to your doorstep.

And once it comes to your doorstep, I think that the amount of information we're able to gather from someone who their family never knew they had a drug problem or they thought they just had maybe a pill problem that allows us to figure out when you talked about where it's coming from, we can track it back to that dealer from to that supplier to that.

The other issue I think we're seeing is that like we were talking about funding, the state of Florida understands that there's a problem and they are.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Department of Health, they all have all these different funding sources and they are putting it for overtime, for equipment.

And when you're dealing with something like fentanyl, you have to have personnel and you have to have the equipment to deal with it.

And the funding sources that we have right now are helping us leaps and bounds.

But as we talk about this, as you see it in the community, it's helping us because just like you said, the stigma is going away because it can be anybody.

It it's you can be a guy who thinks, oh, I don't really do drugs, I just smoke marijuana.

Well, then they put it in your marijuana and you're overdosed in the corner, you know.

So again, that's why it's so far reaching.

And I think that's the biggest thing I see.

The men and women of the sheriff's office are going to go and get the bad guys every day.

They they have their marching orders.

The sheriff has a long history in drugs, narcotics and being very successful as a narcotics officer.

So he puts an emphasis on that because that's what we're going to stop it.

That's where our gun crimes coming from.

That's where a lot of things come from is our drug trade.

So I think that as long as we all move in that same direction, and I believe that's what our community does better than a lot of places here locally, our community works in the same direction.

We're all working, but we all have relationships.

We all know each other and we know where we got to get to.

We just got to get everybody else there going when we can.

What about successes that you guys have seen with the collaboration or with with individuals and with maybe some of the programs you do?

Just making the difference that.

We've been blessed to see a lot of success stories, reconnecting a lot of families.

Success looks different for for everyone.

You know, I had one gentleman who has literally I, I can't say enough.

I remember day one versus now.

And this person became the hero of his own narrative.

And I remember having the conversation.

And here this person is now switching from patient to provider to caregiver to peer support.

And then I've had people who have never had a clean drug test in 25 years break down in tears, because here we are at the day that they never thought would come.

Both are tremendous successes in my book, and it's extremely important that we continue this engagement, to continue this collaboration, because inevitably that when we're all rowing together, that's what works.

If not, we're just turn it in a circle.

And I can tell you, I talked to her, what, like three or four or five times a day?

Because then after five, because, Right, we're never going to leave someone behind.

Never.

So if there's not an appointment that day, she's going to reach out.

We're going to bridge that person because we're not going to send that person back to the dealer.

We're going to make sure that they get on the road to recovery today, not tomorrow.

Today.

It's about the people that come to you.

And the difference is you've seen successes.

Every time somebody opens our front door and says, maybe could you help me?

Successes.

Every time I get to answer a call and connect someone to their next chapter.

Success is when someone relapses and we don't judge them.

Success is when somebody calls and somebody picks up the other end.

So important.

Success is this.

Every conversation that we can have and somebody watches this Billy, and recognizes they're not alone.

So what are our next steps here as we move forward, this progress being made?

You know, what do you think?

What's the most important thing that somebody can do or that your agency agency can do with it now?

What's a difference maker moving forward?

I see it now.

That's a different question.

Our level of success or what we think we can do next is going to look a little different than theirs, where we're hitting more drug houses than we've ever hit before.

And the only thing we can can you do is work with our federal and state partners and continuously hit those people who are polluting our community and on the back end, get them involved in programs like that, work with the state attorney's office so that not everybody who gets caught up in this thing needs to go to prison.

These people who are victims of these drug traffickers need to get help.

They need to get out of the system.

So the people who are bringing the sin in are selling this to our families are the ones that need to go to prison.

And the victims of it are the ones that need to get help, whatever that looks like.

However that looks And I think that's where we go next.

We continue to hit the people who are killing our community and the want the people, the victims of that.

We them out of there and we get them to the places they need.

And we have talked this whole day about some of the successes they had.

It's exciting what they're doing on their side.

I will tell you this.

The men and women of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office are going to go and get the bad guys every day.

We are going to find these people who are polluting our communities and we're going to put them in jail.

But we're also going to help them get to the programs, the people that are the collateral damage.

We're going to help them get to the programs and you get to in our partners, in our community.

Joey, what do you what would you say?

I will say that there is a direct correlation between the raids that they do and the influx of patients that we see which means that it is different.

It is it may seem on the outside it's this, it works all the same.

And if that's what somebody needed to get back on the road to recovery, then that's what needed to happen.

And here we are.

But I will say that out of the darkness, a lot of light has come to the especially into this community.

These conversations are important.

You know, any time that we can help prevent one death, we have one.

And and we do it every day.

Smither, what do you want to see?

I would say, besides continuing the conversation and providing excellent care, we're really, really focused on enhancing peer presence.

These folks who I get to see get better every day so beautiful, are now becoming empowered to help the next person on that road.

It's great for a clinician like me to say, Hey, you can do it, but it is more powerful for someone who has been there in their shoes to say that to them.

So that's what we're really, really focused on, enhancing people to not suffer in silence.

This is not taboo.

Let's have a conversation and get you to thrive and like you deserve to be.

Well, thank you all very much for your time and for all the amazing work that you guys are doing.

Absolutely.

Thanks to all my guests for their time, their stories and all the work they've done to fight this deadly epidemic.

As we've seen, the fentanyl crisis is frightening in Pensacola.

But with all the effort being put in the raised awareness and treatment options now available, there is hope.

It's a problem that affects all of us and we can all make a difference.

Thanks for watching.