ORLANDO, Fla. — On this National Overdose Awareness Day, there’s a lot at stake for the state of Florida.

What You Need To Know

  •  Tuesday is National Overdose Awareness Day

  •  Orlando officials say fentanyl overdose deaths have become a very serious problem in the city

  • The opioid can be as much as 100 times stronger than morphine

  • In 2020, of the 75 overdose deaths that happened in Orlando, 63 involved fentanyl

Over the past year, Central Florida leaders say there have been major developments, good and bad, that have impacted the opioid crisis.

Houston Spore went from high school athlete, to loving father, but there were many years in between where he says things got dark.

“I ran into a back injury where I ended up permeating four discs in my spine," said Spore. "I ended up having my first back surgery at 16, which consequently had me hooked on opioids.”​

The OxyContin the doctors prescribed was meant to erase the pain — instead, they erased 15 years of his life.

Now, he fears today’s addicts are stuck in an even darker situation because of fentanyl, which can be 100 times more potent than morphine.

“Fentanyl does not give you a chance to be a 15-, 20-year opioid addict like I was," Spore said. "It’s gonna kill you. You don’t know what you’re getting."

That’s one of the reasons a brand new Overdose Investigative Unit was formed within the Orlando Police Department.

“People are getting addicted to it by dealers who are lacing drugs that an addict may normally request," said Orlando Police Sgt. Stephen Marra. "They’re lacing it with fentanyl to prey on these addicts," 

Marra heads up the unit, which came to fruition in October 2020.

In that short time, the unit has made 65 arrests of dealers linked to fentanyl, which included three first-degree murder indictments for distribution of fentanyl.

“Our goal is to get away from the stigma of overdoses only happen to drug addicts who constantly just take drugs and finally they overdose. That’s not what we’re seeing is happening," said Marra. "Of course that happens, but again, a lot of times, it’s accidentally happened because they’re requesting something else, and it’s being laced with fentanyl.”

Spore said while overdose awareness is fresh on the mind, this is the message he hopes will stick.

“It’s to be cognizant that while we are facing such a global pandemic, we are also suffering, and the age group suffering are the young people," said Spore. "And they’re going to be suffering more and more until we figure out how to handle this.”

Last year, there were 75 overdose deaths in Orlando — 63 of which were fentanyl related

This year so far, there have been 33 overdose deaths, with 29 orelated to fentanyl.