Osceola County Sheriff Marco Lopez held a news conference Thursday afternoon focusing on drug overdoses and drug arrests in 2022. Lopez says he wants to see fewer drug-related deaths in Osceola County.He says more than 200 people in the county overdosed last year and the solution to getting that number down is holding drug dealers accountable.Lopez says in reviewing data from 2022, his team found that more than 140 people died by overdose. He says deputies administered Narcan more than 70 times.“The key to protecting people is holding the traffickers responsible. We go after the higher level drug dealers so we can stop the people pushing this junk in our community,” Lopez said.Lopez held a news conference Thursday where he listed the names of seven suspects arrested for drug trafficking, whose charges were either lowered or dropped.State Attorney Monique Worrell held a news conference Wednesday, where she explained sufficient evidence isn’t always provided for prosecution.“Now I understand that it’s frustrating for law enforcement agencies to see a case that they have built be dropped due to lack of prosecution, and to avoid this, we encourage them to communicate with us before making arrests whenever possible and through that dialogue, we can explain from the beginning whether or not sufficient evidence exists to file charges, prior to them making an arrest,” she said.Worrell is offering training to local law enforcement agencies to help them learn how to build better cases.Lopez says it's not about training.“Our detectives are constantly in contact with the state. We also look at case dispositions and when you see a case that’s being pleaded down to a sale and delivery instead of the trafficking, that means there was probable cause and there was beyond a reasonable doubt. So it’s not a training issue here. I don’t know what the issue is,” he said."Detectives and patrol deputies risk their lives every day investigating and arresting drug traffickers," Lopez said.He stressed how dangerous drugs can be, saying people have died from exposure."It's very dangerous. We've seen children, people being hospitalized just from being exposed to this," Lopez said.The sheriff said drug traffickers can be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison."The levels of mandatory prison time increase with the amount of drugs the trafficker has," Lopez said.Lopez said several people were arrested for drug trafficking last year."In 2022, my agency arrested approximately 73 people for trafficking and illegal narcotics," Lopez said.The sheriff said out of the 73 people arrested last year, none of them went to prison on the mandatory prison sentence and he expressed concern about the traffickers not receiving the mandatory minimum prison sentences.Lopez said none of the 29 cases that went to prosecution have gotten the mandatory minimum sentence.The sheriff said exposure to fentanyl has been taking people's lives and he wants it to end."People are dying because of fentanyl," Lopez said. "We need to send a strong message to these people that we are not going to tolerate this here in our state."We reached out to the state attorney’s office for a response to what the sheriff had to say."Today's press conference with Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez was filled with inaccuracies and misinformation and serves no other reason than to perpetuate a false, collaborative narrative being presented by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and others that my office doesn't prosecute cases. As I have said on numerous occasions, nothing could be further from the truth," Worrell said in a statement. She went on to say that prosecutors always aim to keep communities safe."The prosecutors in this office work tirelessly to protect the community and keep our residents safe. Their mission is to hold those who violate the law accountable within the confines of the law, in accordance with our ethical obligations as prosecutors. They do not deserve to be woven into false narratives surrounding 'policies' that simply do not exist." Worrell said in a statement. Watch the full news conference below:Top headlines: Deadly fungal infection already detected in Florida, spreading at alarming rate, CDC says Florida man wanted for murder dies while fleeing from Port Orange police Relativity Space launches 3D-printed rocket from Cape Canaveral