Local Government Report: The Opioid Crisis and Marion County, Florida

This report analyzes the opioid crisis in Marion County, Florida, highlighting its impact and the local government's response. The report begins by introducing Marion County, its historical significance, and its current challenges, particularly the opioid crisis, which has garnered national attention due to its high mortality rates. It discusses the factors contributing to opioid addiction and overdose deaths, including the availability of drugs like heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine. The report also references the story of a young girl affected by her mother's opioid addiction, illustrating the personal toll of the crisis. Furthermore, it details the efforts of local officials, such as the Mayor of Ocala, in forming a heroin/opioid task force to address the issue through education, prevention, law enforcement, treatment, and medical perspectives. The report also mentions state and national-level responses, including the declaration of a public health emergency and recommendations for federal action. Finally, the report emphasizes the importance of community health assessments and collaborative efforts to combat the opioid crisis effectively.

Running head: STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT-LOCAL ISSUE
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT-LOCAL ISSUE
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Introduction
The Marion County is located in the Florida state of United States of America and it
includes the Ocala Metropolitan Area. The historical value of the place is considerably high
as various evidence of ancient relics have been found in the region. The rural areas have been
used historically to breed and grow horses for racing. The region is dotted with big farmlands
and also national parks and sanctuaries. Florida’s 1st tourist destination has been developed in
the Silver Spring that has been developed around the Silver River. The Silver Spring State
Park was also developed around this time. In spite of all these strengths of the region there
are various political issues that have affected the county.
Discussion
The biggest issue in the local area has been the Opioid deaths that has caused national
headlines because of its serious nature. Cases of opioids incorporate morphine, heroin,
fentanyl, tramadol, and methadone. Indications incorporate deficient breathing, little eyeballs,
and obviousness. Beginning of side effects depends to a limited extent on the course opioids
are taken. Among the individuals who at first survive, entanglements can incorporate
rhabdomyolysis, pneumonic edema, compartment disorder, and brain harm which cannot be
overturned. Hazard factors for opioid overdose incorporate opioid reliance, infusing opioids,
utilizing high measurements of opioids, mental clutters, and utilize together with liquor or
benzodiazepines. The hazard is especially high after detoxification. Reliance on medicine
opioids can happen from their utilization to treat interminable pain. Diagnosis is by and large
in light of manifestations (Ray et al., 2017).
The rate of Opioid deaths in this region is higher than the other parts of America, and
this has been a raging political issue in the area. Overdose of Opioid happens in the state
since long and there have been political movements in order to reduce the usage and

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consumption of the drug. The addiction starts with the usage of drug as a trial and the usage
increases to become addiction at a point of time which then becomes addiction (Patrick et al.,
2016). Therefore it is generally held in the political scenario that if the drug distribution can
be reduced in the first place then naturally the deaths due to overdose can be controlled.
The following report states the real situation unground in the region. This is the case
of Destiny a girl who is 11 years old, Destiny Hise who is really close with her mother Misty
Autumn Buckholz and requires to spend time with her. She reaches her grand mom’s house
and finds a paper of blue and white color, she gets hand on her mother’s diaries and things
that she left. "My mom composed five diaries," said Destiny as she experienced the crate,
which is enclosed by her mother's most loved hues, on an ongoing day.
Destiny is just going to enter into the 6th grade and she stays with her grandmother,
Kandee Buckholz, most of the time in the last 6 years of her life, while her mom spent time in
jail and was moving in the direction of a medication less life before she passed on of an
overindulgence of cocaine and the powerful opioid fentanyl on the day of March 25 at her
condo in Ocala. Looking for answers for a developing pestilence in the vicinity, the Mayor of
Ocala Kent Guinn, in partnership with Mike Jordan, official chief of the Marion County,
made a heroin/opioid team in May. At the main gathering, Guinn said there were about 70
deaths due to overdose in the year 2016 in Ocala. Greg Graham, who is the Police Chief, said
the count so far in the year 2017 were poised to coordinate the 2016 count. Jordan stated
there were more demises due to overdose in the year 2016 across the nation than movement
fatalities. He additionally referred to an expansion in rush hour gridlock fatalities including
illicit medications.
Gathering individuals, partitioned into instruction and counteractive action, law
implementation, treatment and therapeutic perspectives, meet routinely to talk about

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arrangements and make proposals. Likewise in May, Gov. Rick Scott, referring to a huge
number of deaths due to overdose in the region of Florida, said the opioid pandemic has made
a "highly sensitive situation." On Monday, The “President's Commission on Combating
Drug Addiction” and the Opioid Crisis dispensed a note encouraging President of the United
States Donald Trump to announce a nationwide crisis under the “Public Health Service Act”
or the Stafford Act and taking note of there are roughly 142 Americans biting the dust each
day.
The “Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National”
HELPLINE at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) is free and accessible every minute of every day for
individuals or families managing mental or substance utilize disarranges.
The said commission expressed that the objectives of such an assertion would be to
“compel the Congress to center around subsidizing” and to "stir each USA residents to this
straightforward actuality, if this menace has not discovered you or your family yet, without
intense activity by everybody, it before long will," as per the Washington Post newspaper.
Fundamental statistics for 2017 from the fifth “District Medical Examiner's Office” in
Leesburg, which serves the place Marion County, show 5 individuals have passed on in
Marion from opoid overdoses and 17 passings were caused by fentanyl or the medication was
available in the expired and that in 20 passings fentanyl or blends were the reason for death
or were available (Surratt, et al., 2014). The simple figures may cover and lab results might
be incomplete at times.
There are a number of debates and discussions within the legislative assemblies and
among the law makers about the possibility and preventive measures to deal with the problem
of drug abuse. What is to be further seen is whether the President’s office and the national

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government takes up the cause with enough importance and gives a clear solution to the
deathly incidents.
The 2015 CHA procedure is the extension in Marion County of a long convention of
network wellbeing appraisal work that has educated the improvement of considerable
automatic and arrangement upgrades. This 2015 CHA speaks to the most recent sign of this
excellent account and is the continuation to the year 2012 “Community Health Assessment”
and year 2012 to 2015 “Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)”, which was likewise
bolstered and encouraged by an assorted shared of network accomplices. The Steering
Committee of Marion County CHA drew in the administrations of “WellFlorida Council” to
finish the evaluation. “WellFlorida Council” is the statutorily assigned neighborhood
wellbeing committee that serves Marion alongside 15 other north focal Florida provinces.
The mission of WellFlorida Council is to fashion network associations to enhance network
wellbeing. WellFlorida accomplishes this mission by giving networks the bits of knowledge,
instruments and administrations important to distinguish their most problems that need to be
addressed and to outline and actualize ways to deal with defeating those issues (Birnbaum et
al., 2011). The Steering Committee of “Marion County CHA and WellFlorida” built in the
2015 wellbeing evaluation exertion on a broadly perceived model and best practice for
finishing wellbeing evaluations and change designs called “Mobilizing for Action through
Planning and Partnerships (MAPP)”. The MAPP device was created by the “National
Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)” in participation with the Public
Health Practice Program Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Conclusion
The issue of Opioid overdose in the Marion County of Opioid overdose has been for
long debated in the regional and national scenario and the political parties have been engaged

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in conflicts and arguments about possible actions that must be taken to overcome the issue.
The various committees and organizations that have been given the task of preventing Opioid
overdose must work in an united way to uproot the problem.
Reference:
Birnbaum, H. G., White, A. G., Schiller, M., Waldman, T., Cleveland, J. M., & Roland, C. L.
(2011). Societal costs of prescription opioid abuse, dependence, and misuse in the
United States. Pain medicine, 12(4), 657-667.
Patrick, S. W., Fry, C. E., Jones, T. F., & Buntin, M. B. (2016). Implementation of
prescription drug monitoring programs associated with reductions in opioid-related
death rates. Health Affairs, 35(7), 1324-1332.
Ray, B., Quinet, K., Dickinson, T., Watson, D. P., & Ballew, A. (2017). Examining fatal
opioid overdoses in Marion County, Indiana. Journal of urban health, 94(2), 301-310.
Surratt, H. L., O'grady, C., Kurtz, S. P., Stivers, Y., Cicero, T. J., Dart, R. C., & Chen, M.
(2014). Reductions in prescription opioid diversion following recent legislative
interventions in Florida. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 23(3), 314-320.