The New Year brings with it the promise of a fresh start and new beginnings, but for Baker County, 2020 started out with a bang.
Like the rest of the country, Florida has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic and the sale of illegal narcotics. Local police are attempting to crack down on their distribution to lower the number of overdose deaths and people becoming addicted to these substances. Police in Baker County, Florida have taken the first step to fight the sale of these substances in their area with the Operation Happy New Year drug bust.
19 Arrested on Drug Charges
After several months of investigation, Baker County, Florida police started making arrests in a drug bust they are calling Operation Happy New Year. The drug bust focuses on a group of people who are accused of selling, distributing, and possessing illegal narcotics like heroin, fentanyl, methadone, and morphine. Since the beginning of January, law enforcement arrested 19 people for their suspected part in the drug operation. While this appears like a large number of people, several suspects have yet to be arrested and are presumably on the run from police. Police also have yet to release more details on Operation Happy New Year and the investigation that led to the arrests.
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Florida Drug Busts & Opioid Abuse
This Baker County drug bust is just another instance of the shady drug operations that can take place in our surrounding communities. It is certainly not the first major drug bust in Florida, and it also won’t be the last. Florida’s citizens, in particular, have struggled with opioid abuse over the past several years. The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased in the Sunshine State by 5.9% from 2016 to 2017 alone with most of these deaths involving various opioids.1 Police can only do so much to combat these numbers and while drug busts like Operation Happy New Year are, of course, a start, they are not enough alone. For those people who are already addicted to opioids, it is imperative that they detox from opioids and receive treatment to stop their addictions once and for all. Only after people stop becoming so dependent on these substances will the state start to see real progress in the face of the opioid epidemic.
As an addiction treatment center, we are no stranger to the hold that drug abuse can have over our communities and have seen the devastating effects that these drugs have had in Florida. If you or are loved one is struggling with a substance abuse problem, get help now.
Call us today at 888-280-4763 to learn more about our programs at Banyan and how we may be able to help.
Sources:
- NIH – Florida Opioid Summary
