SARASOTA, FL - Some might call it a victory in the war on prescription drug abuse. Purchases of Oxycodone have dropped significantly across the state, but some say the news won't do much to end the battle against prescription drugs on the Suncoast.

According to the DEA, doctor's purchases of Oxycodone, a highly addictive pain killer, dropped 97% statewide from 2010 to 2011.  But according to local substance abuse professionals, this is only the beginning and there's still work to be done to combat the problem.

Sarasota County ranks #1 in the state for having the most medical professionals registered in the prescription drug monitoring program, and here on the Suncoast, everyone seems to be doing their part.  “Community members, parent advocates, medical professionals, law enforcement, everyone has come together to make this possible,” says Brooke Baker with the Sarasota County Health Department.
 
She says it will take that kind of community-wide initiative to put a dent in the prescription drug abuse problem.  “The numbers of Oxycodone have decreased significantly, and part of that is due to state laws that went into effect July 1 that no longer allow practitioners to dispense out of office anymore.”

And despite the decrease in Oxycodone sales, PJ Brooks with First Step of Sarasota says that just means it's more difficult for people who are currently addicted to prescription drugs to access their drug of choice. “Now you're going to have a population of folks looking for their drugs of choice and they're going to have to go about getting it in different ways, whether it be switching from prescription opiates to street opiates like heroin and it could be a real challenge.”

Now that new laws and the database seem to be tackling the supply side, Brooks says the community needs to deal with the treatment side.  “This is not done. This is just the beginning. This is the beginning steps to impacting and addressing the issue of substance abuse as a disease. We are dealing with addiction, and it is a chronic and curable disease just like hypertension, diabetes, and asthma, and we need to be willing to work as a community to look at it.”

According to the DEA, Florida was once home to 90 of the top 100 doctors writing prescriptions for Oxycodone. That number has also dropped. Now, there are only 13 of Florida’s doctors on that list.