Gov. Rick Scott visited Sarasota on Tuesday and signed into law a bill that will make fentanyl and carfetanyl just as illegal as they are lethal.

  • 700+ have overdosed on opioids this year in Manatee Co.
  • Bill goes into effect Oct. 1
  • Sheriffs approve bill, know more needs to be done

"Hopefully we can get some more tools to law enforcement to help them crack down on this," the governor said.

The bill would make the punishments for selling fentanyl and carfetanyl the same as any other controlled substance.

"At the end of the day, we want the dealers off the street, we want the traffickers, we want to lock them up," said Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight.

"You're never going to lock your way out of addiction, but you can lock the dealers up and make sure they can't distribute this poison on the street," Knight said.

While everyone at the bill signing agreed this is a good first start to fight the opioid epidemic, they also agreed more needs to be done outside of law enforcement.

"Our treatment facilities need funding. We need to help get them into those facilities and try to get them off of this poison," Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said.

This year more than 700 people have overdosed from opioids in Manatee County, with more than 60 dying.

Scott recognizes that more needs to be done.

"We're spending over a billion dollars on mental illness, issues like this," Scott said. "How do you spend that better? Part of it's spent through corrections, part of it's spent through DCF (Department of Children and Familes), DJJ (Department of Juvenile Justice), and a variety of issues."

The bill goes into effect Oct. 1.