Florida: The Oxycodone Coast

From a Tampa Bay Tribunestory about oxycontin addiction, a jaw-dropping fact:

Oxy makes junkies out of people who would never buy from a street dealer. It is everyman’s high, heroin in a pill.

Of all the oxycodone prescribed in America in the first half of last year, 98 percent was dispensed in Florida. According to the state medical examiner’s office, an average of seven Floridians die from prescription drug overdoses every day — more than from car accidents.

Ninety-eight percent! Why Florida? Any idea? This brings to mind something a new friend told me over lunch right after I’d moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1995. She said that it was no accident that the FBI’s national office for investigating fraud was located in south Florida. Hmm.