Pasco gets boost in fight against prescription drug abuse

Pasco officials hoping to curb the raging prescription drug epidemic just got a dose of good news.

The county's drug treatment court received a $975,000 grant to help offenders ages 18 to 26 who are addicted to prescription medications. The grant will pay for the expansion of the existing treatment court for three years, with the goal of treating 55 non-violent offenders each year.

"What it will do is give us the ability to target a group of individuals and do some intensive work with them to get them away from their addiction," said Circuit Judge Shawn Crane, who presides over Pasco's treatment court. "There's a real possibility it's going to have a positive impact on that segment of our community."

Abuse of prescription medications - particularly pain medications such as oxycodone and roxicodone - has exploded over the past several years. Pasco has seen a parallel rise in the incidence of abuse and the crimes that generally accompany it.

"They're readily available and they can get the same high off that as they can off any other narcotic," said Lt. Charles Balderstone, who heads the sheriff's office narcotics unit. "It's all about the availability and demand."

In 2009, prescription drug cases accounted for 45 percent of the cases handled by the narcotics unit, Balderstone said. That number jumped to 64 percent last year. In the same period, the number of pills seized by sheriff's office investigators rose from 13,958 to 28,412.

"The state of Florida is working hard on a prescription drug monitoring program, which has met a lot of stumbling blocks because of a lack of funding," Balderstone said. "But until we get some of these things in place, we're going to continue to be the pill capital of the nation."

Officials hope the grant, which comes from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, can help. The money will fund court-supervised treatment for addicts, including mental health counseling to help assuage issues that frequently accompany addiction.

The first defendants for the new program are expected to be identified by the end of the month.

The grant will add to Pasco's drug treatment court, which has existed officially since 2006. Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper started a Dade City-based drug court in 2004, prior to the approval of funding for the official program.

A separate federal grant ensures Pasco's treatment court is funded through 2014.

Officials tout treatment court's savings to taxpayers and its success in keeping defendants from re-offending. Court system statistics show treatment court saves more than $1.7 million in tax money because it keeps low-level drug offenders out of the Land O' Lakes Jail.

In 2009, court officials estimated that only about 8 percent of defendants who completed treatment court re-offended.