The Florida Medical Examiners Commission issued a report last week stating that the rate of deaths for 2007 attributed to prescription drugs was three times that of all illegal drugs combined. The move from illegal to legal began about eight years ago, Florida officials say. “You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments,” said a drug intelligence inspector.
Figures in the report show that of 168,900 deaths statewide, 989 were caused by illegal drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines. At the same time, legal opioids like Oxycontin and Vicodin were linked to 2,328. As a comparison, deaths from heroin rose 14% for a total of 110, while deaths from oxycodone shot up 36% to 1,253.
Florida tracks drug-related deaths much more closely than other states, making comparisons among states difficult. Florida’s findings, however, are similar to those of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which puts the number of Americans who abuse legal prescription drugs at about seven million and represents an 80 percent increase in six years.
While Florida has been careful to keep track of drug-related deaths, federal law enforcement officials as well as officials in other states say Florida has lagged behind in the sales and monitoring of prescription drugs, making the Sunshine State, they say, a ready source of drugs being sold illegally across the entire country.
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