LELY, Fla. — The Collier County Sheriff's Office has started a series of town halls in schools, focusing on a growing issue: fentanyl.
In September, Fox 4 covered the announcement of Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk's launch of the Laced and Lethal campaign. Now, the sheriff is teaming up with the school district to continue to push the message.
Thursday marked night one of the three-night series of town halls covering drug safety, social media safety and driving safety.
Since fentanyl has been on the rise nationwide, Sheriff Rambosk says he is getting ahead of the problem by educating the public.
“We believe in three to five years fentanyl will be a national crisis," said Rambosk. "We are not anywhere near that here today, but we want to make sure our parents are fully aware of what fentanyl is today.”
The sheriff tells Fox 4 he suggests people make Narcan, which is now sold over the counter, a part of their home first-aid kits as the drug can affect individuals through multiple sources.
“There's a lot of ways in which you can be affected by, particularly, fentanyl," said Rambosk. "Many other drugs do not have this effect, fentanyl actually does, and that is through contact through breathing it into your system and a lot of times you won't know the substance is on a piece of clothing or on something you pick up."
According to Sheriff Rambosk, in 2023 alone, the Collier County deputies have seized over 15 pounds of fentanyl, as of July 1.
“Sometimes we as adults, we're working all the time, we don't get a chance to stay as connected as they do," said Rambosk. "We just want to make sure that they understand what the levels of potential there are in our community, and what we're doing to fight and stop that from increasing as time goes on.”
Sheriff Rambosk says through their partnership with the school district, they have educated over 10,000 students, but now it is the parents' turn.
“People got to get themselves educated on what’s going on so that they can get the message on to their children," said Michael Kane, grandparent of a Collier County student.
The next town hall is set for November 9 at Immokalee High School, followed by another on November 16 at Aubrey Rogers High School.
