Florida’s Prescription Drug Epidemic
According to data released by the Drug Enforcement Agency, Florida houses Forty nine of the nation’s leading 50 OxyContin prescribers. Clinics in Florida have become hubs for prescription drug traffickers from all around the country to visit and buy several thousand pills. Florida drug rehab facilities are targets for these traffickers since most residential rehab facilities have large quantities of prescription drugs readily available in order to taper off the dosages for people who’ve become addicted to the prescription drugs. Check out https://www.thewatershed.com/resource/residential-rehab-center/ for more info on rehab centers.
Florida- The Oxycodone Expressway
Doctors in Florida are actually handing out prescriptions of oxycodone as well as other painkillers at a rate that is Ten times greater than that of every other state combined. This has prompted people from all across the nation to go to Florida to get prescriptions of these addicting medications. Walk-in clinics located in Florida are now referred to as pill mills by law enforcement since they simply provide prescriptions of the pills for their own profit. Traffickers of oxycodone arrive from all over the country, but most them are from Appalachian regions such as Tennessee, Kentucky and also the Carolinas. A lot of these pill dealers travel to Florida for only one or two days and then depart from Florida with many hundreds of pills they can resell in their own cities for a huge profit.
Zero Regulations
The primary reason that Fl is to blame for the vast majority of these types of prescription medications is the fact that there presently is no system to monitor who’s getting these prescriptions. Almost all the other states have a system set up to monitor who is purchasing prescribed pain pills and exactly how frequently. That means that in Florida, drug traffickers can go from clinic to clinic with the exact same symptoms and pick up multiple prescriptions each day. Until a system is put in place, this will remain a serious problem in Florida.
Prescription Drug Related Deaths
In Florida alone, more than seven individuals die every day from prescription drug linked accidents. Numerous others are being affected by addiction. These painkillers are created from opium and therefore are extremely addicting and nearly as deadly as heroin. The only difference is the fact that it’s far less common for any doctor to prescribe heroin. The drugs affect the body’s central nervous system and cause the respiratory system to slow and stop if used large enough dosages.
Legislation
Even though a law was passed last session to implement a tracking system on prescription medications, there was initially no funding provided to initiate the system. Rick Scott has openly called the plan a complete waste of money. Until doctors in Florida are held accountable for basically trading drugs for personal profit, there will always be an enormous drug industry in Florida.
Florida drug rehab centers as well as other residential rehab centers will continue to fill with more and more drug addicts till this is stopped. Florida cannot afford to keep up this kind of horrible trend. Prescription pain pills like OxyContin are dangerous if they are abused the way that Florida allows them to be. Check out https://www.thewatershed.com/florida-fl-drug-rehab/ for more information on Florida drug rehab programs.