Every day brings another story about the depth of the country’s opioid crisis. A rise of pain killer prescriptions from doctors and a pharmaceutical industry eager to boost sales in the 1990s sparked a wave of addiction that shot up by almost 500 percent in the last 15 years.
A recent report from Florida’s medical examiners showed a 35% increase in prescription drugs than illicit drugs, accounting for 61% of all drug occurrences.
Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Chairman Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) reported the report’s numbers were “staggering.”
“Imagine if we had a plane crashing in the state every month,” Brandes said. “We would do everything we could to stop that. That’s about the amount of people who are dying every month due to opioid addiction.”
So what are we doing about it?
Our top-shelf panel will offer a stimulating, yet unsettling, discussion of this crisis. And, importantly, discover how you are one dental procedure, one accident, one surgery away from opioid addiction.
David Scharf – David Scharf is a thirty year criminal justice veteran and is currently the Executive Director of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office Department of Community Programs. Most recently he has focused his attention on the horrific Opioid Epidemic
Randy S. Katz, DO – For the past ten years, Dr. Katz has served as the Chairman the Department of Emergency Medicine of Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. He has been Attending Physician of that department for 13 years.
Jonathon White – Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) Jonathon White possesses over 26 years of total law enforcement experience. In his present assignment, ASAC White works in DEA’s Miami Field Division as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge; he focuses much of his efforts on the implementation of DEA’s 360 strategy, which is a holistic 360 degree strategy aimed at stopping the proliferation of diverted opioids and illegal heroin.
Tammy Tucker, Psy.D. – Dr. Tucker is an Associate Administrator at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. She has devoted her career to chemical dependency programs and Behavioral Health Services, and oversees several operational areas. Most recently, Dr. Tucker oversees the Mothers In Recovery program which assists opiate addicted women to safely detoxify so their infants are born drug free and has also successfully started the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for adults addicted to opiates.
MARCH BREAKFAST SPONSOR: Memorial Healthcare System
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