Prescription Drugs Kill More
Floridians Than Illegal Drugs
For the first time in
history in the State of Florida, more people died from overdoses of
prescription drugs than from illegal drugs. This statistic reported in the
June 8, 2002 St. Petersburg Times came from a report of the 24 medical
examiners in Florida for the year 2001. The article noted that there were
939 cases where lethal levels of prescription painkillers such as OxyContin,
methadone and Vicodin, or benzodiazepine drugs such as Xanax or Valium were
found. The 939 cases in 2001 more than tripled the 284 cases in 2000.
Jim McDonough the Florida drug
czar said the rise in prescription drug deaths shows a need for better
monitoring of prescription narcotics. However this idea was rejected this
year by the Florida Legislature. McDonough, director of the governor's
Office of Drug Control, said the abuse of oxycodone, the main ingredient in
OxyContin and numerous other painkillers, continues to be worrisome. He
commented, "It's a drug abuse that came out of no place. There was an
epidemic growth."
The article reported
that Florida deaths related to oxycodone and its chemical cousin,
hydrocodone, rose 45 percent in 2001 compared with 2000. They did note that
after doctors and the public became aware of the growing death toll, those
deaths dropped 14 percent during the last six months of 2001. The total
number of prescription related drug overdose deaths in Florida for 2001 was
939 compared to 714 deaths due to illegal drugs in the same time frame.