Florida sees drop in overdose death rate

Death rate from prescription drug overdoses fell by 23%

When it comes to prescription drug abuse, Florida has always been at the top of the list.

Now after stronger measures enacted by lawmakers, tougher regulations and enforcement, the number of people dying from overdoses has made a startling drop.

The death rate from prescription drug overdoses fell by 23 percent in just two years.

Researchers said this is the first significant decline since the prescription drugs abuse epidemic started more than a decade ago.

For doctors, they said it’s a sign that the measures are working and hopefully people are getting help.

“Florida was really the epicenter of the prescription drug epidemic in this country,” said Dr. Joe Spillane.

Spillane, a pharmacist and toxicologist at UF Health, knows first-hand how dangerous prescription drug abuse can be. That's why he's excited to hear drug overdose deaths have dropped significantly in Florida.

In 2010, Florida began requiring pain clinics to register with the state, and law enforcement raids shut down other clinics and seized medications.
Dr. Spillane said a new state prescription drug database is helping as well.

“When somebody comes into the emergency department or any pharmacy and they have a prescription or somebody prescribes it, we can then query that database and see if they've been doctor shopping or have gone to numerous places,” said Spillane.

From 2010 to 2012, the death rate in Florida from prescription drug overdoses fell by 23 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

In the same time period, the rate fell by more than half for OxyCodone.
But overdose deaths from other illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine increased slightly.

“One of the concerns is, will people now use more heroin or something now because if you're an opioid addict and you can't get a hold of prescription opioids, then you may resort to heroin,” said Spillane.

The increase in heroin deaths didn't offset the decline in prescription drug deaths researchers said.

And Dr Brian Jackson of the Greenfield Center in Jacksonville said he's noticing something else.

“We’re seeing more and more people coming for help to get off the opioids they've been on,” said Jackson.

Jackson said new Florida regulations are causing people to think twice.

“What has happened is people who couldn't get prescriptions anymore from these pain clinics have been going to the street and they're jeopardizing getting arrested and going to jail, plus it's very expensive,” said Jackson.

Nationally, the rate of prescription drug deaths has remained high through 2011, according to reports.

A few other states have seen declines in prescription drug abuse deaths, but none as drastic as Florida.

Florida sees drop in overdose death rate | News - Home

surely pain clinic is what it for pain..may start people OD because in terrible pain like asprin..pain make people do strange things...my friend was on oxycodon,she was talked into massive operation on her back instead of pain meds which were working,she had the operation left her free of pain but paraplegic,at some point i know she will take her life...her life is now intolarable

Mew is hording the dopes to herself!! while she prescribing weaking stuffs to the paitents!!

If you read the pharmacy blogs, a lot of people with valid reasons for pain meds are being turned away by many pharmacies. It's like the DEA can't seem to find an appropriate line of regulation, and either it lets too many people get prescription pain meds when they don't need it or it means those who do need it can't get it.

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG Grummer!

No, it's because they cracked down a lot on us writing pain medications for things. They're very strict now. Back a few years ago, a physician wouldn't hesitate to write you a script for Percocet for a broken toe. Today we basically tell you to suck it up buttercup, splint it, tell you to take Tylenol for pain and ibuprofen for the swelling and keep it moving. Too many drug abusers out there and too many people selling this crap. There are even people out there ( Yes I have seen MULTIPLE that have come into my place of work on MULTIPLE occasions ) who will INTENTIONALLY break their fingers and toes to try and get scripts for pain killers... Nope, no go buddy... you have to be in much more pain for me to give you a script for that... and you're going to NEED them if I'm giving you a script, I can assure you of that... No abuse on my watch!

This is true! I am one of them that DO need them but HATE it and I find it extremely difficult to get them. LAME!

We had a guy who was in severe pain in spine and beg for pain killer, and he was denied due to NYS regulation, he ended up killed himself. He has no history of drug abuses. He lived not far from my home.

Eater of Worlds said:

If you read the pharmacy blogs, a lot of people with valid reasons for pain meds are being turned away by many pharmacies. It's like the DEA can't seem to find an appropriate line of regulation, and either it lets too many people get prescription pain meds when they don't need it or it means those who do need it can't get it.

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diehardbiker said:

This is true! I am one of them that DO need them but HATE it and I find it extremely difficult to get them. LAME!

We had a guy who was in severe pain in spine and beg for pain killer, and he was denied due to NYS regulation, he ended up killed himself. He has no history of drug abuses. He lived not far from my home.

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me to... I lot of pain,wish no had take them but I do and I get really pissed when people who no suffer same as me think I should be stoic WHY

Eater of Worlds said:

If you read the pharmacy blogs, a lot of people with valid reasons for pain meds are being turned away by many pharmacies. It's like the DEA can't seem to find an appropriate line of regulation, and either it lets too many people get prescription pain meds when they don't need it or it means those who do need it can't get it.

Click to expand...

Pharmacies don't turn you away for pain medications, physicians do. Pharmacies don't write you prescriptions, physicians do. Once you have a prescription written by a physician, the pharmacy fills it... end of story. It's not the pharmacy you have to convince you need a pain killer... it's us... the physicians, your primary care doctors, your emergency room doctor, physicians assistant or ARNP's... those are who you have to convince... not a pharmacy. A pharmacy does nothing but fill a prescription for you. So I am not quite understanding what you're talking about being turned away by a pharmacy if you have a legitimate prescription from a legitimate physician. Physicians are the ones who have the regulatory standards on writing prescriptions... Pharmacists in certain states and certain pharmacists that go through enough certifications CAN be certified to write certain prescriptions, but not controlled substances... which include... Yes... pain killers. In RARE VERY RARE cases a pharmacist can write pain killer prescriptions... we're talking INCREDIBLY RARE cases... in those cases the pharmacist would usually have been a certified practitioner of some sort with their backing in pharmaceuticals, or taken a butt load of certs to write them. Even in that case, if they write a script for it, they still have to notify a physician that they wrote that script. They still can't do beans without letting a physician know. They can't just la de da write pain killers scripts. 99.999% of them won't write them. They also can't turn you away with a legitimate script. I believe what you are referring to is a case that Walgreens went through a while back that has been scaring a lot of Pharmacies around linked here. Walgreens pharmacists now turning away some customers who need p - 13 WTHR Indianapolis They are not turning people away, they are telling them they must verify the legitimacy of their script and then they will fill it. That is completely different than saying "Go away I'm not giving you painkillers." Completely different. Yes, it is inconvenient, but inconvenient at best... it's not depriving them of their medications completely. Physicians are the ones telling you to go away... not pharmacies... and that's because we worry about being black listed and put on a damn list! We have to be careful these days. If we're black listed we go under investigation and ultimately can lose our license! No thanks! It just means we're more cautious... it doesn't mean we don't write them at all... You'd be surprised how good people are at faking. It's not easy peasy to weed everyone out... You try and weed out the fakers from the real ones in pain. Pain isn't ALWAYS visible. In certain cases where I can see damage... SURE! When that damage heals and they tell me they're still in huge amounts of pain... I'm not going to really give them more... Try and see it from our point of view too... If you spent thousands and THOUSANDS of dollars on medical school, hundreds of hours and all of that time and brain energy for your license and everything all for nothing to get your license taken and to be fired and pretty much to never be hired anywhere ever again, wouldn't you be scared shitless too? I think you would be pretty cautious as well if you were a legitimate physician of any kind just trying to help people and do your job... I'm not trying to get people addicted or help addicts... Just trying to do my job, live my life and help people... but there are people that want to take advantage of that and people who are physicians that want to make money off of that. I am not one of them and would never be... but unfortunately, there are crooked people on both sides of this fence that ruin it for us all.

^^ I'll 2nd what Mew said 110%. And give an example. Walgreens bought out my pharmacy a few months ago and converted the stores over to Walgreens and their policies. Well I had my dr refill a script for hydrocodone 5-500(sent request for refill through the hospital patient portal) he sent me a message there saying the script itself would be mailed. Well I get it in the mail and went to fill it and not knowing it had been changed they no longer make 5-500 its 5-325 and even though tylenol is a non prescription drug the Walgreens couldn't do a thing with it till the dr authorized it for 5-325. So I ended up taking that script back with me when I was in to see him last week and he just give me a new one for the 5-325 instead so when I went in to Walgreens they had it filled and done within 10 minutes. And there was no limits my script is for 90 at a time with 5 refills on it and they fill it just fine.

Mew, you really are a pill-popper, and this is not good, it will chase you later and bite as karma for cheating the biology...seriously......

The pharmacies are indeed denying people prescriptions. It's primarily Walgreens and CVS, the ones that were hit with penalties for filling prescriptions from pain pill mills. My own doctor has told me to avoid those pharmacies as a result. I'm very well aware of the issues around pain medication, I've been a pain patient since Mew was a child. I'm always afraid that this is the day my pharmacy decides to drop me, and I'm afraid to switch pharmacies when I move in a few months. Many of the independents in my area no longer deal with narcotics, because they are afraid the DEA will shut them down, for shit that isn't their fault.

I'm never going to be able to go off the medication, unfortunately. I would just kill myself. Thanks to psychedelics I've lowered my medications but I've pretty much hit the limit where they can get me lower. Though, next time I won't look at Yakuza tattoos prior to taking that med. That caused a bad bad trip. When I came out the doctors were asking me why I was crying (I apparently cried for an entire hour). In my mind the Yakuza were after me. A far better trip was when I had the contestants of RuPaul's Drag Race flying with me through canyons.

I worked in the pharmacy for 20+ years and yes Pharmacist can and do turn people away if we believe there is an issue. I've seen it all. I worked closely with the DEA and have busted more than 20 people. We stopped when I felt I was putting my staff in danger. I think it is very sad and totally wrong that some doctors are so afraid to write a prescription for pain medications. That means people with serious pain suffer because of the people who do abuse the system. Pain due to a broken bone in one person can be totally different in another. Does not make that person weak just different. When a patient needs a prescription for pain meds a valid picture ID needs to be shown starting at the doctors office. Then when you bring your written prescription or they have a faxed order for your meds you then should be required to show your picture ID at the pharmacy. (some areas do this already) Once your picture ID is in the system this will help reduce some of the issues of fake prescriptions or doctor shopping patients. It will also provide pharmacies, doctors and the DEA access to the information and may be one tiny step in helping this situation.

I would not be alive today if my physician and pharmacist did not take my pain issues seriously. Severe chronic pain is hell and if by taking a pill makes it so I can breathe then no one should have the right to take that away from me.

In California Pharmacists go to school from 6-8 years and also have a license they need to protect.