SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Project Opioid, along with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, announced its new program called “The Everyone Campaign.”
The campaign is set to focus on the dangers of drugs like fentanyl and help people who are struggling with the opioid crisis by using marketing billboards.
[TRENDING: US airlines warn of ‘catastrophic’ halt to air traffic | Brother of high-profile missing Florida woman disappears | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
On Tuesday, advocates showed examples of the billboards with different messages such as “Fentanyl: The Deadliest Opioid Variant” and “6 Feet Apart Shouldn’t Mean 6 Feet Under.”
“I think that maybe if you’re intoxicated, you may not be looking at this, but if you’re sober and you’re on your journey, it’s going to do a couple of things. One: It’s going to let you know that you’re not alone. That we see you. That society recognizes the struggle that you’re in,” Sheriff Dennis Lemma said.
Lemma explained over the course of the pandemic, the opioid crisis has gotten worse, not just in Central Florida, but across the state with the leading drug, fentanyl.
“(About) 9,000 Americans died in one month in May of 2020 and 770 of those were right here in Florida,” Dr. Kendall Cortelyou with Project Opioid said.
Officials said nine printed billboards and 15 digital billboards have been placed across Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.
They are hoping to reach 1.3 million people a week with the messages.
“If I have a family member, somebody I care deeply about at home, and I see this, I’m going to go on this website and if I go to the Project Opioid website, I’m going to walk away much more informed about what’s going on,” Lemma said.
For more information on Project Opioid, click here.