US FL: Prescription Drugs, Homegrown Marijuana Big Problems

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, HOMEGROWN MARIJUANA BIG PROBLEMS

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- State officials say prescription drugs accounted
for nearly three-fourths of the 7,741 overdose deaths in Florida last
year.

The statistic was presented to Gov. Charlie Crist and the state
Cabinet at a drug abuse seminar Tuesday.

"I guess it has this cloak of legality about it because they're made
by a legitimate company instead of grown in somebody's field
somewhere," Crist said. "Nevertheless it's just as detrimental, can be
just as destructive, so we again just have to work that much harder."

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement also released numbers
showing 3,980 autopsied bodies in the first six months of 2007 had one
or more drugs in their system, mostly prescription drugs at lethal and
non-lethal levels.