Prescription Drugs Cause More Overdoses Than Heroin, Cocaine

Accidental drug overdoses from prescription pills have more than doubled in the past decade as deaths from illegal drugs decreased, a Florida study found.

Prescription medications were implicated in 76 percent of all overdose deaths in Florida between 2003 and 2009, while illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin were present in 34 percent of deaths, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Ten percent of overdoses came from a mix of both illegal and prescription drugs.