Efforts to crack down on Florida’s pill mills have already shown results, Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials said Wednesday.
When Scott took office in January 2011, seven Floridians a day were dying of prescription-drug overdoses, and people from other states came here to make their buys.
Now, according to the 2011 Interim Drugs Identified in Deceased Persons Report, the number of prescription-drug deaths has fallen nearly eight percent compared to the same period in 2010.
And since their creation a year ago, Florida’s Drug Enforcement Strike Force Teams have made 2,150 arrests and seized nearly half a million pills, 391 weapons and $4.7 million, said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.
“We’ve gone from being known as the ‘Oxy Express’ to being a role model for our sister states,” Bailey said.
As a result of law enforcement efforts and a new state law, which went into effect on July 1, oxycodone purchases by Florida doctors have dropped 97 percent from 2010 to 2011, officials said.
In 2010, Florida was home to 90 of the nation’s top 100 Oxycodone-buying doctors and 53 of its top 100 Oxycodone-buying pharmacies. But over the last year, the number of such doctors has been reduced by 85 percent, to 13, and the number of pharmacies has dropped 64 percent, to 19; the number of pain clinics has dropped from 800 to 508 statewide.
