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