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DRUG CZAR: HEROIN DEATHS DECLINING STATEWIDE

After five years of sharply climbing death rates due to heroin overdoses, the number actually dropped by 8 percent last year. 

"I am optimistic that we have set a new trend," says Jim McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control. 

He attributes the decrease in fatal heroin overdoses to an increased emphasis on law enforcement, treatment and prevention. 

"We mounted an effort to see how much heroin and other drugs was flowing into Florida, who the traffickers were and how it was landing here," he says.  "It took seven months, and we came up with a better picture, which allowed us to put more agents where we thought they would be most effective. 

"And that led to a lowering of the death rate."

One of the things his office did since it was created in 1999 was to establish a new high-density drug trafficking area -- a federal designation - -- in Florida in Miami/Orlando/Jacksonville. 

"It is a big deal that we have that designation," says McDonough. 

That allowed his office to connect with efforts being made in Puerto Rico, "to do a better job of catching the stuff as it moves."

On the prevention and treatment side of the equation, his office increased the state budget 43 percent over the past three years. 

"That is unheard of in any state," says McDonough, who adds that this year's budget increase for prevention and treatment is 14 percent. 

"For the first time in decades, the drug-use numbers for teens and children have gone down," he says. 

Since 1995, the number of teens ages 12 to 18 using marijuana has declined 38 percent, those using cocaine is down 66 percent, and inhalant use dropped 19 percent. 

In addition, his office has worked to halve the waiting period for addicts to enter already-overcrowded treatment programs, which, in turn, has halved the waiting list for such programs, he says. 

"There have been major efforts made," says McDonough.  "We're doing good."