September 19, 2017

“Florida’s opioid crisis is about to get deadlier. Here’s how Orange County officials plan to fight back” by Monivette Cordeiro thoroughly looks at what the state of Florida has and has not been doing to combat the opioid crisis. AAC Alumni, Stephanie Muzzy, shares her experience with opioids and overdoses throughout the piece. The ending mentions her successful time at Solutions Recovery, highlighting over 5 months clean since treatment.

Jeff Turiczek, CEO of Tampa’s River Oaks Treatment Center of American Addiction Centers, says Florida’s opioid epidemic could be dramatically affected if Republicans in Congress and President Donald Trump keep their promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Currently, the federal health care law gives low-income people with mental health problems or addictions the ability to afford preventative services, like rehab, through Medicaid.

“I don’t think anybody goes in knowing an opiates addiction can be so expensive,” he says. “There’s never enough beds, never enough indigent care for the uninsured in Florida. It’s a disease, and something that needs to be treated. It really is beyond somebody wanting to just give it up.”

Turiczek was one of several experts to be featured in the article. He joined the ranks along with Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and  Danny Banks, special agent in charge for the FDLE’s Orlando region and a member of Orange County’s opioid task force. Read the entire article with here.