PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — September is National Recovery Month, reminding people they can overcome addiction, and advocates in the Tampa Bay Area are warning people about the dangers of fentanyl.
Kelly Lajb walks into work every day at Footprints Beachside Recovery on Treasure Island in a happier place and is grateful to be here still today.
“My addiction started when I was in my teens,” said Lajb. “I had an ankle injury from basketball, which led me to pain pills at a young age, and it just kind of spiraled from there."
Just two years ago, Lajb overdosed from a combination of drugs laced with fentanyl.
"A few days later, that's when I realized, wait a minute, what just happened. I don't want to die,” said Lajb.
Her struggle with addiction is a reality for many people.
Last month, Attorney General Ashley Moody said the country's drug overdose death rate continues to increase.
Her office pointed to an FDLE reportwhich showed District Six, which is made up of Pasco and Pinellas counties, is the area of the state with the highest number of total deaths with fentanyl at more than 370; it says nearly 100 more deaths than the next closest district in Jacksonville.
"Certainly, there's been an increase in fentanyl, and we don't see it slowing down, unfortunately,” said John Templeton Jr., the President and Co-Founder of Footprints Beachside Recovery.
He wants people to know there's no shame in getting help.
"We just want to encourage people to make that phone call,” said Templeton Jr. “There's help out there, and they don't need to suffer."
Now, Lajb's passion and purpose is to help people with similar struggles, knowing an end to addiction is possible if you take the first step.
"There is a life outside of addiction, and it's incredible once you achieve it,” said Lajb.
