One Florida county is bucking the statewide trend of increased opioid deaths.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Annual Medical Examiners Report, opioid deaths in Palm Beach went down 14 percent from 2020 to 2021.
State Attorney Dave Aronberg says opioid deaths increased statewide by 5 percent during the same timeframe. There were still 519 deaths in the county and most of those were related to fentanyl, which is up to 50 times more potent than heroin.
The top prosecutor says the drug is being found in non-opioid street drugs at an alarming rate.
Aronberg is calling on the Legislature to decriminalize fentanyl test strips in Florida. They are classified as illegal drug paraphernalia in a majority of states, according to the American Medical Association.