Links to more info: Florida Springs Inpatient, Detox, Outpatient

There are few things that I personally trust the DEA with. They have been a driving force behind the failed “war on drugs” since Nixon was president, and they have ruined many lives. They are surreptitiously involved in the healthcare of millions of Americans, but clearly have no mandate to be involved in healthcare (methadone clinics are just one example). However, when it comes to what kinds of drugs are coming into the United States from foreign lands, there is nobody else to turn to for this vital information. Criminal Organizations are mixing methamphetamine and fentanyl together and sending it to the streets of America: urban, rural, and suburban.

From the Laredo Morning Times:

“Jun. 27—A man has been arrested for the smuggling attempt of methamphetamine and fentanyl through the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge.”

A layman reading this would no doubt assume these two separate drugs were intended to remain separated all the way to the end-user, the person with addiction, very possibly a person with addiction in Florida. On the ground in places like Florida, we know that criminal organizations are mixing these two drugs in order to hopefully turn more experimenters into every day users. Of course, it is not shocking that criminal organizations, who are involved with countless murders, would do anything to make more money. The story here is that their terrible plan is working. Over 15,000 people died from meth overdoses last year. Over 70,000 people died of fentanyl overdoses. We know that many of those fentanyl overdose victims had meth in their systems when they died. This is no accident. The cartels and criminal organizations have found that many people will try a drug for the first time and not enjoy it, basically that person is destined to enjoy a life free from addiction, and the cartel does not want that. They also know that people who enjoy meth and people who enjoy fentanyl are often two different people. They are basically creating a 2 for 1 opportunity to hook Americans to deadly drugs by mixing two of the most potent drugs of abuse and addiction.

Fishing with Two Lures

There are people who enjoy doing uppers or speed drugs (Meth, Adderall, Cocaine) at the same time as downers (Fentanyl, Heroin, Vicodin, Oxycodone). Most people, however, have a drug of choice that fits in one group or the other. The cartel is not trying to make everyone into speedballers (People who mix heroin and meth or speed), they are fishing for addicts with two lures instead of one. The person who tries the mix and is predisposed to enjoying downers will enjoy the fentanyl part of the mix, and vice versa. It should be noted, as I have before on this blog, that we have no approved medications to treat meth addiction, so the fact that even classic opioid addicts are coming to treatment with a meth addiction unintentionally is a big problem.

This New Game

Illegal Fentanyl hit the streets hard in 2015, so much of this is very new. The overdoses from these mixed drugs are naturally harder to handle for EMS and first responders. Although fentanyl overdoses still easily outweigh meth overdoses, we are going to see, and have seen, an increase in dual overdoses as well as people admitted to drug and alcohol treatment with multi-drug addictions. And overdoses are not the problem most people in this field work on. It is getting people away and off these drugs, whether after an overdose or not, that is the main work of substance use disorder treatment, or addiction treatment. In Florida, we have a Panama City Facility, between Pensacola and Tallahassee that has seen an uptick of people needing help with all these drugs. That was a conscious choice of the heads of the criminal organizations, but we will not be deterred. The great people at the best rehabs in Florida, including Florida Springs Wellness and Recovery Center in Panama City are willing to go the extra mile to help people who need serious addiction treatment and therapy for trauma. This problem is getting worse, the 96,000 who died do not even begin to show the size of the problem, as countless more are still alive, and they need help; they need our support. If you have a chance to volunteer at an organization working with addiction patients in the Florida Panhandle, please take that opportunity. Many people who work in recovery have been through it themselves, but the population of Florida is growing extremely fast, including all the cities I mentioned above: Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, Tallahassee, and on and on. We will likely pass 100,000 deadly overdoses next year, so help from just the people who have survived addiction is not enough. We need people to get involved who have compassion and empathy, but never had a drug or alcohol problem themselves necessarily. If Alcoholism and the deaths that come from that were included in the 96,000 deaths statistic, it would more than triple. The only way to counter these new cartel and criminal strategies of mixing meth and fentanyl and making more addicts is to greatly increase treatment capacity, and we need more good people to get involved. If you or a loved one is in Florida, or can get here, and needs addiction or alcoholism treatment, call Florida Springs Wellness and Recovery today at the number listed above on the website or Google or Facebook us.

By T.A. Cannon (Contact me at TACannonWriting@gmail.com)

References
“Meth, fentanyl seized at International Bridge 2”
Authors: Rodriguez, Cesar
Source: Laredo Morning Times (TX). 06/27/2021.