Pubdate: Mon, 17 Dec 2007
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2007 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE A GROWING PROBLEM IN S. FLORIDA

The latest report on drug overdose deaths statewide and recent 
analysis by authorities signal some changes in Florida's drug trade 
and drug abuse patterns, particularly in South Florida.

Among the growing trends authorities say they have noticed in recent years:

Drug dealers who sell powder cocaine and crack cocaine increasingly 
also peddle more-profitable prescription pain killers, such as oxycodone.

Groups involved in prescription drug trafficking are growing more 
organized. All the while, Florida remains one of the few states that 
does not track prescriptions.

Marijuana grown in suburban homes fitted with hydroponics labs are 
producing plants that are three to 15 times as potent as the drug was 
two decades ago. Historically, the majority of these homes uncovered 
statewide have been in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

"The information showing the magnitude of today's drug crimes is 
eye-opening and disturbing," Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a 
prepared statement.

Authorities mentioned the trends in recent reports and at a Dec. 4 
presentation to Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet.

That same day, state medical examiners and the Florida Department of 
Law Enforcement reported that although cocaine remains the deadliest 
drug in South Florida and statewide, oxycodone and methadone are 
growing just as deadly. In the first half of this year, cocaine was 
involved in 398 fatal overdoses, while oxycodone was linked to 323 
and methadone, 392.

The same trend has been seen in Broward and Palm Beach counties, 
where the number of fatal overdoses linked to oxycodone and methadone 
has steadily increased in recent years, state reports show.

Officials also report an increase in drug rehabilitation cases.

There were about 80,000 adult rehab cases statewide and 19,000 
juvenile ones in the 2006-07 fiscal year, up slightly compared with 
the previous year, according to the Florida Office of Drug Control. 
Excluding alcohol, the most-cited drug in adult rehab cases was 
cocaine, while among juveniles it was marijuana, officials said.

The Office of Drug Control is trying to form anti-drug coalitions in 
every county to serve as the best observers of the problem on a local 
level. The coalitions would suggest how to deal with the drug issues. 
With broad statewide measures failing to make a significant dent, 
small nonprofit groups, such as the Narcotics Overdose Prevention 
Education task force, based in West Palm Beach, feel like they are at 
the forefront of the battle.

They hope emotional, face-to-face discussions with young people will 
turn them away from drug abuse and so-called recreational drug use.

Susan Chappell, of Southwest Ranches, is a task force volunteer.

She lost her 22-year-old son, Bradley Johnson, to a prescription drug 
overdose in 2005 and since has been trying to educate young people 
about drug abuse. Chappell says her son received monthly 
prescriptions for OxyContin from a podiatrist in Broward County for 
about a year.

All he had to do was say his foot hurt, Chappell said.

"He would tell me, 'Mom, it's so easy,'" she said, visibly 
frustrated. "I'm not an addict, so I don't understand it, but I know 
that addiction is a disease."

Johnson, who got hooked on the pills in late 2002, had also received 
prescriptions for pain killers from a doctor in Miami-Dade, Chappell said.

He had gone through rehab but kept relapsing, Chappell said. When he 
wasn't grinding and then snorting the pills, he led a successful life 
as a computer technician.

On April 8, 2005, he fell asleep at a friend's house and never woke 
up, killed by a combination of oxycodone and alprazolam, an 
anti-anxiety medication also known as Xanax.

"I miss him every moment of every day," Chappell said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom