Prescription-drug overdoses killed nearly 1,270 Floridian

Rx for Danger

s in first half of 2010

Legal medications found more than illegal drugs in victims of drug death, FDLE report says

By Amy L. Edwards Orlando Sentinel
8:17 PM EST, December 2, 2010

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Prescription-drug overdoses killed nearly 1,270 people in Florida during the first half of this year, according to a statewide report released Thursday.

State medical examiners continue to find prescription drugs more often in the bodies of the dead than illicit drugs, documenting the fatal consequences of the nation's prescription-drug epidemic.

One painkiller, oxycodone, was blamed for more deaths than alcohol, cocaine and heroin combined.

"It is no longer just illegal narcotics like cocaine and heroin being bought and sold on our streets. Drug dealers have made legal narcotics a top-shelf product," said Commissioner Gerald Bailey of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which issued the report.

By comparison, 1,157 people died from prescription-drug overdoses during the first half of 2009, according to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission.

"Even when used correctly by a prescribing physician, these are potent drugs. When abused, overused and mixed, they can become deadly," Bailey said.

From January to June, about 89,800 people died in Florida. About 4,150 people died with one or more drugs that could be detected in their bodies.

Of those, about 2,580 people died with one or more prescription medications in their systems — drugs at lethal and nonlethal levels. The prescription drugs in these cases also may have been mixed with alcohol and illicit drugs.

Occurrences of the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone in the bodies of the dead increased about 11 percent and about 4 percent, respectively, when compared with the last six months of 2009.

Deaths caused solely by oxycodone and hydrocodone also increased when compared with the last half of 2009. Statistics showed there were 63 more oxycodone deaths and 10 more hydrocodone deaths during the first half of the 2010 than during the previous six-month period.

"This new drug crisis rivals the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s," said Bruce Grant, director of the Office of Drug Control. "We must get agencies at all levels of government along with our communities and our medical professionals to step up and take action."

Throughout Florida, law-enforcement agencies and local governments are doing what they can to combat the state's prescription-drug epidemic and death toll.

Cities and counties are taking measures to regulate pain-management clinics, which are often fronts for so-called "pill mills," where doctors dole out powerful prescription drugs for cash.

Orange County leaders are drafting an ordinance that could limit the number of pain-management clinics and their hours of operation. Commissioners are slated to discuss and vote on the ordinance at a public hearing Tuesday.

About 100 deaths in Orange County last year involved misuse of prescription drugs, the Medical Examiner's Office has reported. This year's local death toll is on track to match or surpass that of 2009.

Amy L. Edwards can be reached at aledwards@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5735.

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