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Prescription drug abuse on the rise in Broward County, report ......
The numbers reflect an alarming increase in Broward County of prescription drug abuse, experts say. That increase has challenged law enforcement, medical examiners and drug treatment centers.
Police are finding themselves ill-equipped to combat prescription drug abuse, said Charles Cihon, executive director of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators. His organization is sponsoring today's Florida Training Conference at the Harbor Beach Marriott in Fort Lauderdale to teach new methods of investigating these crimes. He said looking into an illegal pill mill, for example, is quite different from probing a suspected crack house.
"You're not kicking in the doctor's office door or the pharmacy," Cihon said. "Many times it's a long, drawn-out investigation that requires a lot of work."
Medical examiners have had to change their methods of determining prescription drug abuse, said Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County's medical examiner. Toxicologists need better equipment that can detect a greater variety of substances in blood and other fluids.
The demandsfor drug treatment centers across the state have also increased.
"This is a steady and constant problem for a very long time," said Dr. Richard Seely, a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction medicine and directs the Family Hospital in Sunrise and another program in North Miami. "It's just part of the addiction environment that we're in."
People's addictions are growing more dangerous, with more prescriptionpills mixed with other drugs to make toxic cocktails, Seely said.
"Most of all, the Xanax. The Xanax bars are just street currency for a lot of people, with the real tragedy being the kids," he said. "They take two or three of these bars and drink a few beers and smash their car into a tree."
All agreed the problem will likely grow worse and the drugs of choice probably will change.
Already in Broward, authorities are seeing the painkiller Roxicet abused more and more, Seely said. In the greater Detroit area, 44 people died in two weeks after taking the painkiller fentanyl with heroin or cocaine, The Associated Press has reported.
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