Niceville Chiefs: Fentanyl A Massive Threat to Our Teens

Christopher Saul
March 20, 2023
10:03 pm
Government, Niceville, Schools and Education

Fentanyl and Niceville Teens

Niceville has a drug, specifically Fentanyl, problem, according to the emergency services chiefs in the city.

Chiefs Tommy Mayville (fire) and David Popwell (police) noted the problem has worsened in the last couple of years at their report during March’s City Council Meeting.

“I don’t want to alarm anyone,” Chief Mayville said, “we’ve had one DOA [Dead On Arrival] since the first of the year.” Chief Mayville then told the city council they’ve used Narcan, a drug used to save lives from overdose, six times since the beginning of February – or about once every nine days.

“We run about six drug related calls per week,” Mayville said, “We’re staying on top of it – we know we’ve got a problem. Unfortunately, the kind of drug we are dealing with doesn’t just come from CVS Pharmacy or from Walgreens. It’s coming from people who are just trying to make some money, they could care less about your kids. And they sell it, these kids take it. [drug dealers] are acting like pharmacists, and they are not. The Narcan we use, I hate to say this, it’s a false pretenese. We give it [to kids using drugs], and they recover, and then we are right back to that house again. And because we save their lives, we try to make them understand that this is temporary, that you have a problem… It’s heart-wrenching when you have to get on your knees and perform emergency services to children.”

"It’s heart-wrenching when you have to get on your knees and perform emergency services to children.”

Chief Tommy Mayville

Niceville Fire Chief

The National Institutes of Health, a government organization, reports steady drug use amongst teens in 2022. They reported teens’ use of the following drugs at these percentages:

School Grade	Nicotine	Cannabis	Alcohol	Drugs other than Marijuana	Narcotics other than Heroin
8th	12%	8.3%	15.2%	4.9%
10th	20.5%	19.5%	31.3%	5.7%
12th	27.3%	30.7%	51.9%	8.0%	1.7%

The NIH also reported a dramatic increase in overdose deaths for opioid overdose for people between 14-18 years of age in 2022. “This increase is largely attributed to illicit fentanyl, a potent synthetic drug contaminating the supply of counterfeit pills made to resemble prescription medications like bonzodiapedes, ADHD medications and opioids,” the report said.

Both police and fire have encountered illicit drug use in the City of Niceville from teenagers to septuagenarians. According to our area arrest data, 38 drug arrests have taken place in the Mid Bay area in the last six months. The average age of an arrestee was 38. The oldest person arrested on a drug charge was 60 years old.

Where is the drug problem in Niceville's city limits?

Chief Mayville told the council he reports all drug calls to Chief Popwell’s department so they know where to look out for drug activity.

Chief Mayville noted that the area with the most overdoses seems to stem from the College Court area, on the other side of College boulevard from Northwest Florida State College.