Florida Attorney General Says Sharp Drop in Oxycodone Sales
Posted on February 11, 2012Pam Bondi, Florida’s Attorney General, says they have seen a huge decrease in oxycodone sales in Florida. She believes newly enacted tougher law’s on prescription drug sales is working in her state, although she knows the job is far from being over.
According to the Miami Herald, the DEA’s tracking system looks at controlled substances from manufacturers and tracks their every stage until dispersement. In Florida, the numbers are quite staggering with almost 500 million oxycodone sales purchased in 2011 by doctors and pharmacists.
New numbers from the DEA though show that figures have dropped 97 percent regarding oxycodone sales from 2010-2011. This was mainly seen to be due to the new state law that went into effect July 1st of last year which banned doctors and clinics from dispersing the pills. DEA numbers further show a 14 percent decrease in oxycodone purchases through pharmacies throughout the same time frame, even with a slight increase the first few months in 2011.
Justice Department numbers show that oxycodone overdoses are more common now than overdoses from cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin combined.
In February of last year, there was a big takedown of a series of pill mills in the Broward County area serving Ft. Lauderdale that was popular among Internet site users. Chief Mark R. Trouville, of the Miami DEA’s office says the message is clear in South Florida that any diversion of prescription painkillers will simply not be allowed and recent statistics show that their message has certainly been delivered.
