PRESCRIPTION-DRUG ABUSE: POLK'S NO.1 KILLER

Illegal drugs are killers. Everyone knows. They take their toll on
society, a death tax that weighs down Polk County.

Which drug is worst? Which is so dangerous that it demands priority
from law enforcement?

Cocaine is powerful, illegal and available in several forms that cause
unrelenting addiction. It is a killer, but coke is not atop the list.
Polk was once known as the capital of methamphetamine in Florida. Meth
remains a dangerously deranging drug, but it's not at the top. The
Sheriff's Office has raided 33 marijuana grow houses this year,
including three on Wednesday in Poinciana and just outside Lakeland.
Pot is not the priority.

"Pharmaceuticals are killing people hand over fist in this county,"
Sheriff Grady Judd told The Ledger on Tuesday. "There's not a week
that goes by that we don't work two, three, four, five deaths - and
pharmaceuticals are killing them."

The No. 1 killer does not come from illicit deals made in the shadows,
but rather from the bright-white prescription pads of doctors. Local
pharmacies unknowingly pave this path to purgatory.

Judd, invited to address editors, reporters and the Editorial Board in
one of a series of Ledger interviews with area leaders, said: "Most of
it is accidental. They are traditionally drug abusers anyway. They've
got physical illnesses as a result of their past drug abuse. They've
been given prescriptions."

80 Years Old and Stoned

However, the sheriff related a tale of truth, frustration and danger
that has nothing to do with crime:

"I got a call from a friend of mine who lives out of state - good
friend, known him forever, used to be a police officer here. He said,
'Grady, my mother lives in this assisted-living facility and she's 80
years old now.' And she recognized it was time for her to move over to
. where they manage your prescriptions and manage your money, and all
that.

"Everything was going real well until they tried to get her
prescriptions away from her. They found out that she was going to nine
doctors, five of which were giving her a prescription for one of the
popular ones. ... She had five different prescriptions at 80 years
old.

"And he said: 'She's just sitting over there stoned all day. And she's
really upset now.'"

Florida Faces Same Problem

"Now, if she can pull that deal off, anybody can. It's a big problem,"
Judd said.

Indeed, patients are finagling such multiprescription deals across
Florida and dying as a result.

A 2008 report from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission says the
top-three drugs that caused deaths last year were:

. Oxycodone, a powerful narcotic painkiller (941 deaths).

. Benzodiazepines, sedative-hypnotic drugs that include Xanax and
Valium (929 deaths).

. Methadone, a narcotic painkiller known for its role in heroin
detoxification, now often prescribed as a replacement for oxycodone
(693 deaths).

Not until No. 4 on the list does an illegal drug appear: cocaine (648
deaths).

Judd says a law is needed to allow pharmacies to cross-check with one
another via a database that flags customers with repetitive
prescriptions.

Despite its utility, such a powerful provision could prove difficult
to pass, given constitutional and statutory privacy rights.

In its session this year, the Florida Legislature passed a law to
create a database to monitor the prescription and sale of certain
painkillers and tranquilizers. It should help investigators track the
worst offenders, but it won't be operational until late 2010, and even
proponents of the legislation concede it was watered-down.

The increase in deaths from prescription drugs is a multiyear trend
that demands further attention from local leaders such as Sheriff Judd
and Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen J. Nelson. They should work in
concert with Polk's legislative delegation. The congressional
delegation should become involved as well, considering the federal
oversight of drugs.

The purpose should be to craft a plan to thwart prescription-drug
abuse, preventing resultant death.