Home » Trump Praised His A.G. Pick for Reducing Opioid Overdoses. In Reality, Drug Deaths Surged Under Her Watch.

Trump Praised His A.G. Pick for Reducing Opioid Overdoses. In Reality, Drug Deaths Surged Under Her Watch.

Pam Bondi cracked down on “pill mills” in Florida. The result was increased consumption of black-market alternatives.

WhenPresidentDonaldTrump announced hisnominationofPamBondiasattorneygeneral,heextolledher“incrediblejob”in“work[ing]tostopthetraffickingofdeadlydrugsandreduc[ing]thetragedyofFentanylOverdoseDeaths.”YetthosedeathsexplodedonBondi’swatchasFlorida’sattorneygeneral. Accordingto data fromtheFloridaDepartmentofHealth,theage-adjustedrateof“deathsfromdrugpoisoning”didfallabitafterBonditookoffice,from13.7per100,000residentsin2011to12.1in2013.Butthenitresumeditsupwardtrajectory,reaching25.1—nearlydoublethe2011rate—bythetimeBondileftofficein2019. Thedeathraterosesharplyin2020(as itdid acrossthecountry),roseagainin2021,anddeclinedin2022and2023,whenitwas30.8per100,000. In2019,accordingto data fromtheCentersforDiseaseControlandPrevention(CDC),Floridaranked20thonthelistofstateswiththehighestdrugdeathrates,downfrom15thin2011