BCSO officials raise awareness for National Fentanyl Prevention Day

BAY COUNTY, FL. (WMBB) – Wednesday is National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day, designated to educate the public on the dangers of the drug.

Fentanyl was originally designed for use by doctors for their patients.

“Its primary use was for cancer patients to relieve them of pain,” Bay County Lt. David Higgins said.

But just like oxycontin once was, fentanyl is now the drug of choice for abusers and addicts.

“Opioids and painkillers are hard to get now, so fentanyl is out there and it’s cheap and they’re buying it. Unfortunately, the people who they’re getting it from, they’re not chemists. They don’t know how much fentanyl to put in with the other things they’re doing, and people are dying from taking it,” Higgins said.

Higgins said the sheriff’s office is targeting traffickers who are endangering the community.

“If someone dies from a fentanyl overdose death or an overdose death that you caused by giving them the narcotic or pill or whatever it may be, we are charging them with homicide,” Higgins said.

Higgins said they’re doing their best to keep fentanyl off of the streets. While fentanyl deaths have been skyrocketing over the last 5 years, Bay County has seen overdose deaths drop in the last year or so.

“We decreased the overdose deaths here in Bay County by 65%. I attribute that to taking drugs off the street, Narcan being readily available, and people’s awareness to not do this because it could hurt them. It’s your life you’re gambling with when you try it. No, don’t do it,” Higgins added.

Fentanyl is often mixed with other drugs, like heroin, to enhance the reaction, but it is powerful and easy to misjudge and overuse. Many overdose deaths are recreational drug users who don’t even know they’re taking fentanyl.

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