Firmer Laws Decrease Prescription Drug Overdose in Florida

According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose and deaths in the United States has consistently escalated since the organization began keeping records in 70’s. From the early 70’s to 2006 drug overdose deaths have increased from approximately 100,000 to more than 1 million. With narcotic pain relievers contributing to 3 out of 4 those deaths.

But in Florida, the number of prescription drug overdoses has radically gone down since the state enacted tighter restrictions on prescribing opioid painkillers. In addition to the tighter control, Florida also implemented several other restrictions that make it more difficult to obtain a controlled substance, according to a report that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention published alongside their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report..

Just as the number of deaths nation-wide has increased so has the deaths caused by drug overdose in Florida. From 2003 to 2009 the number of overdose death has increased by 61%. The majority of these deaths are linked to oxycodone and alprazolam. Due to the high influx of deaths, especially related to these narcotics, the state passed several laws and ordinances to restrict inapt prescribing.

Since the regulations passed, all pain clinics that operated with controlled substances are now required to register with the state and to obey additional laws and guidelines. Residents of Florida might recall the large crackdown on several of these pain clinics in 2011 that resulted in several closures, seizures and arrests. Due to these raids, regulation was immediately changed so that physicians and even some different types of specialized nurses who operated in these clinics were no longer able to distribute schedule II or III drugs from their offices. On top of these changes, pharmacies were also required to report data about these prescriptions to a newly enacted drug monitoring programs.

While similar to medication therapy, these drug monitoring programs are more closely ran by the state and don’t encompass some of the more holistic approaches to prescription management that medication therapy provides.

With all of these newly created laws in place, Florida was able to see a 16.7% deduction in the number of drugs attributed to overdoses from 2010 to 2012. Death rates that are attributed to prescriptions drugs fell by 23.2%. Deaths causes be oxycodone also decreased by 52.1%. The immediate correlation between the lower statistics and the newly passed laws shows that the changes made had an overwhelmingly positive impact on prescription drug abuse in the state of Florida.

While there has been some positive momentum on the drug regulation front, alcohol abuse within Florida continues to be some of the highest in the nation, especially in ages 12-20. In the latest statistics from SAMHSA, parts of Florida have as high as 24% teen binge drinking rates which compares to the nation average of 1 in every 12 adults (according to the University of New England).

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