Blog post from June 2017.

The blog post was titled, “It’s incredibly unfair that the message isn’t out”.


“Stop sending your children and your loved ones to South Florida because we’re sending them back in body bags.”
—Lake Worth Commissioner Andy Amoroso quoted in radio interview by WLRN reporter Peter Haden.

To listen to the entire interview use this link. Two more excerpts from the text of the news article:

“You see these wonderful ads: ‘Come to South Florida. Beaches. Palm trees. Ocean breezes. You can get clean,’ ” said Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein.
     According to a 2014 insurance industry report by Optum, 75 percent of people getting treatment at private rehab centers in Florida came from other states. And with more than 2.5 million Americans addicted to opioids, there are plenty of potential patients.
     “We’re now having tourists come in for treatment,” said Bornstein, “these young folks in their 20s from New Jersey, New York, Michigan — wherever the heck they’re coming from — and their families send them here.”

Bornstein continues. . .

“It’s incredibly unfair that the message isn’t out: Don’t send them here. Keep them where you are. We should focus on our own residents and people that have issues. Now we’ve got the burden of the rest of the country’s being shipped here.”