more than 100,000 people in America died of drug
overdoses in one year from May 2022 april of 2021. That
is the highest yearly death toll from drugs ever
recorded in the U.S. Let that sink in. It is also a 30%
jump year to year according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention experts believe top drivers or
the growing presence of fentaNYL and also the pandemic
of course, which left many people socially isolated a
unable to get treatment or support and for those who do
seek treatment for addiction, i can be hard to find
equal access several groups. For example, in south
florida though they're working together to not only
address the rampant drug addiction problem in our
country, but also the lack of diversity and
accessibility of treatment. Reporter Tory Dunnan
explains how these groups are making a big difference.
Yeah. For kevin choi the pathway here to change is a
long dark one. My parents just, they stopped
recognizing their kids, you kno and I would like stop
recognizing myself. You know, I had burned pretty much
every single bridge I could. His story of opioid
addiction finally got injured playing football, broke
my elbow, got some prescription painkillers and it
kind of stayed with me is far too common these days. I
grew up in a very traditional korean home, you kn
this kind of stuff doesn't exist in our realm of family.
I think for them it was like you know, we raised you in
church, we raised you in a really good school system. A
cry for help in a google search landed the Califo
kid in florida peak of drug used to like the pit of
drug use took about seven years. But what happened next
would change his future even more when you went into
treatment, you looked around and what happened Nobody
looked like me. That was another barrier that I didn't
think about. You know, but it was like, here's a korean
american kids in Boynton beach florida, you know, in
rehab, with faces that don't look like him with people
that may not understand my family structure, you may
not understand my culture. That experience put choi on
the map. Many years later, you now the founder of the
harm reduction center in Boyton Beach. There are other
communities and pockets of people that have the same
type of experiences. The same barriers that I had. It
may not be the fact that they're Asian Americans, t
complete that their Haitian Americans a drive and focus
to provide accessibility for all. He drifted a
microscopic study of his facility. This is another
waiting room that we have our commercial basis. I would
say less than 20% are seeking help that are minoritie
It's a big problem, reverend Ray Whitely preaching
gospel of the kingdom. An organizer for faith in
florida is tackling the problem alongside Troy using
our churches as that safe space that they could come to
and having conversations like these, addressing what he
calls a stigma from the pulpit in the neighborhoods and
getting people into treatment specifically minoriti
How difficult isn't it's been difficult because you
have a lot of barriers that stopping minoriti
actually access to treat one is the cost to is the
stigma that's attached to to what's happening now. We
really have to talk about accessibility to mental
health and drug addiction. That accessibility a
discussion is something the T Leroy Jefferson Medical
Society is taking on. The group of healthcare
professionals focuses on underserved communities in
Palm Beach County. There's a stigma that exists.
Sometimes we have to breach somehow when it comes to
people of color because sometimes you don't want to
admit that there's a problem sometimes um we take it
upon ourselves, if you look at the numbers, it shows
that the outcomes aren't as good as they could be
prevention, education and knowledge through an opioid
prevention series, conversation with medical providers
in the community outreach. They've created a website
and toolkit for physicians. I went to medical school a
few years ago, we talked nothing about addiction.
Tiffany Mccollum, an emergency physician, works with T
Leroy and believes it needs to be addressed on the
doctor front as well. So these days we think of
addiction as a disease. Part of the problem is that if
you don't truly understand that and you don't truly
believe that then you have a hard time living that and
transferring that kind of information to your patients
and you found focus on solutions. Once opioid probl
became a problem for everybody, for the general
population and honestly, for white suburban America, it
became a bigger issue Now. It's a war on drugs. We are
seeing that people are responding differently. We'
done what we need to do to gain access to therapists
doctors that speak both languages. And so that's what
we need to do as administrators. And yeah, I mea
those things are major barriers that can be overcome
and the states that saw the biggest percentage spike in
overdose deaths, Vermont, west Virginia, Kentucky and
California.