TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A new report shows prescription drug deaths dropped 6.37 percent in Florida last year although overall drug deaths increased slightly.
    
Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that the annual medical examiners' report shows Florida is succeeding in its crackdown on pill mills, which sell to drug dealers and addicts.
    
Deaths from oxycodone fell dramatically by 17.7 percent although the prescription pain killer remained Florida's second-leading cause of drug deaths in 2011.
    
The leading cause - a class of depressants that includes sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs - increased by 13 percent. These benzodiazepines caused 1,950 drug deaths out of a total of 9,135.
    
The total is up by 134 from the previous year. Oxycodone caused 1,247 deaths followed by methadone, 691 deaths, and cocaine, 604 deaths.

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