Recession and inflation ravage the economy and foreign adversaries press their attacks on the United States. Yet there remains one particularly vicious issue destroying families and communities. Opioid addiction is a remorseless killer that had caused over 70% of deaths in 2019 alone according to the CDC.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announces a new program designed to aid in recovery from this scourge in a press conference held Wednesday morning.
Dubbed the Coordinated Opioid Recovery (CORE), the program will involve the Depts. of Health, Children and Families, and the Agency for Health Care Administration. These three groups are to create and coordinate a system of mutual cooperation between one another in order to stabilize patients.
CORE boasts that it is the first addiction recovery of its kind. Rather than rely solely on emergency services to treat overdoses, patients will receive additional care and social support services. Care programs include primary, dental, and maternal care, in addition to psychiatric evaluations.
Social support services include housing, food insecurity, and career training. Essentially, as described in the press conference, the program will treat addiction recovery in a similar fashion to trauma recovery. Furthermore, dealers of these substances will be punished much more harshly.
Subsequently, DeSantis likewise announces Dr. Courtney Phillips as Director of Opioid Recovery to lead this new means of aiding victims of addiction. The CORE program will launch in two phases covering twelve counties. Phase One will begin in Brevard, Clay, Escambia, Gulf, Marion, Pasco, and Volusia Counties. Phase Two will cover Citrus, Duval, Flagler, Manatee, and Pinellas Counties.
DeSantis posted the complete press conference as a video on Twitter later Wednesday morning.
Governor DeSantis Expands Successful Substance Abuse Recovery Model https://t.co/GC0ZPvvr0c
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 3, 2022
"Governor DeSantis Expands Successful Substance Abuse Recovery Model," the tweet simply reads.
Of particular note are the multiple jabs at the Biden Administration DeSantis makes throughout the conference, especially in relation to drug trafficking allowed to continue over the Mexican border as he did back in December.
