Two separate reports done by James C. Hall, director of Nova Southeastern University's Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse, and the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, show victims of more than 8,600 deaths in Florida had at least one prescription drug in their system that contributed to their passing. (up from about 6,200 drug-induced deaths in 2008)

According to the reports, the increase in drug deaths is due to a disturbing and relatively new trend of drug abusers mixing opiates and narcotics like heroin and cocaine with opioids, prescription drugs like oxycodone or simply switching frequently from one drug to the other.

Two cities that far outpaced every other city in Florida in terms of prescription drug deaths are Fort Lauderdale and St. Petersburg.

In Broward County last year, 225 people died with large amounts of oxycodone in their bodies; 57 had morphine in their systems, 60 were high on methadone, 46 on hydrocodone, and 27 on propoxyphone, for a total of 415 opioid-related deaths in Broward, compared to 342 such deaths in 2008.

Among the 2009 Broward County totals, 62 percent took lethal doses of opioids before their deaths, and 91 percent had at least two drugs in their systems at the time of death -- typically a combination of opioids and cocaine.

``That is a sea change in what we've seen in prior years,'' Hall says. ``We've found in the past that people who prefer drugs like cocaine and heroin tend to stick to those. The same goes for people who've fed their addictions through prescription drugs. They're combining them now. It seems that the prescription drug trade in Broward has started to leach into Miami Dade County.

Hall believes that this could be the result of bad economy forcing drug abusers to supplement their use with less expensive addictive substances.

He said this practice of combining narcotics and opiates could lead to a new drug epidemic like the drug use of early 1980s.

While cocaine-related deaths were down to 155 and 135, respectively, in Miami-Dade and Broward counties last year -- declines from 201 and 146 in 2008 -- 68 percent of such deaths in both counties were found to be tied also to abuse of a prescription drug, typically some form of oxycodone.

Source: James H. Burnett III – Miami Herald, Posted: Thursday, 07.01.10

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