PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE RISES IN 2001

More Die In Florida From Prescription Drug Overdoses Than Illegal
Drugs, Such As Heroin

FOR THE first time ever, prescription drug overdoses killed more
Floridians last year than illegal drugs.

A report by Florida's 24 medical examiners shows a sharp rise in the
number of people overdosing on legal or illegal drugs, mainly because
prescription painkillers and street drugs such as heroin are more
potent than ever.

The results are seen in morgues and in drug treatment centers such as
those run by Operation PAR, based in the Tampa Bay area.

"We're seeing more kids with heroin in their systems. You used to have
to shoot it up, but now it's so pure that you can smoke it or inhale
it," said PAR spokesman Marvin Coleman. "We're seeing an increase in
prescription drug abuse and club drugs like ecstasy. You don't hear
about cocaine much anymore because of the impact of other drugs, but
it's just as serious an issue as it was before."

Florida's medical examiners performed toxicology tests on 15,000
people who died under violent or unexplained circumstances in 2001.
More than 5,000 had drugs in their bodies; more than 3,000 had been
drinking alcohol, according to the report released Thursday.

Medical examiners found lethal levels of illegal drugs such as
cocaine, heroin or ecstasy in 714 people in 2001, compared with 489
people the previous year.

In 939 cases, they found lethal levels of prescription painkillers
such as OxyContin, methadone and Vicodin, or benzodiazepine drugs such
as Xanax or Valium. Last year's 939 cases more than tripled the 284
cases in 2000.

Florida drug czar Jim McDonough said the rise in drug deaths shows a
need for better monitoring of prescription narcotics -- an idea
rejected this year by the Florida Legislature. Florida's House and
Senate blamed each other when an agreement on a proposed law blew up
at the last minute.

McDonough, director of the governor's Office of Drug Control, said the
abuse of oxycodone, the main ingredient in OxyContin and numerous
other painkillers, continues to be worrisome.

"It's a drug abuse that came out of noplace," McDonough said. "There
was an epidemic growth."

OxyContin is now the most frequently prescribed narcotic in the
country. The drug's manufacturer points out that millions of people
take the drug responsibly to relieve their pain.

Florida deaths related to oxycodone and its chemical cousin,
hydrocodone, rose 45 percent in 2001 compared with 2000. After doctors
and the public became aware of the growing death toll, those deaths
dropped 14 percent during the last six months of 2001.

"We saw a decline toward the end of the year; regulation of oxycodone
may have been bumped up," said Bill Pellen, director of investigations
for the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office.

Many people who overdose have mixed different drugs together, Pellen
said.

The Tampa Bay area bucked the statewide trend of prescription drugs
killing more people than illegal drugs. Locally, record numbers of
people overdosed on heroin or cocaine last year.

In Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties, 58 people died from
fatal overdoses of heroin, 35 from cocaine, 26 from oxycodone, 24 from
methadone, and 12 from hydrocodone.

Hydrocodone is sold under 26 brand names, including Vicodin, Lortab
and Lorcet. Methadone was once used mainly to treat heroin addicts but
is increasingly being prescribed for pain.

Among all the drugs, heroin has become the Tampa Bay area's biggest
killer.

"Heroin deaths are way up," said Hillsborough Medical Examiner Vernard
I. Adams.

This is a heartbreaking trend for parents such as Dan Johnson of Palm
Harbor, whose 21-year-old son Steffan James Johnson died of a heroin
overdose last November.

"It is often perceived that most individuals who die from heroin
overdoses are probably 'junkies.' Steffan was not. He was a kind,
gentle, loving and caring person who unfortunately was also a
recreational drug user," Dan Johnson said.

"We are losing precious young loved ones to drug overdoses. The sad
thing is that they are all preventable."

- -- Information from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale
was used in this report.