Mr. Shear, along with an addiction expert, legal experts and a political representative, participated in a panel discussion regarding the Gulf Coast’s opioid epidemic on Wednesday, according to a report from the Bradenton Herald.
According the report, Mr. Shear said his office has responded to 2,538 overdoses since 2015. Among the overdoses, 260 resulted in fatalities.
Carfentanil was originally created as an elephant tranquilizer and is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl. In August 2016, carfentanil-laced heroin caused more than 75 overdoses in Indiana and Ohio in less than a week.
More articles on opioids:
How a 101-word letter in an academic journal helped fuel the opioid epidemic
HHS makes $70M in grants available to address opioid epidemic
NIH will partner with pharma to tackle opioid crisis
