"Drug runs" to Florida from other states have become more popular as addicts and dealers take advantage of the state's weak prescription-drug monitoring program to illegally obtain potent pain pills, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Dec. 4.

Florida has become a haven for so-called "pill mills" -- doctors' offices that prescribe powerful prescription drugs to large numbers of patients with little oversight. That has prompted a rise in drug tourism -- people coming into the state to purchase drugs like hydrocodone, methadone, and oxycodone.

Florida has no system for tracking drug prescriptions despite a high number of overdose deaths from prescription-drug use. A U.S. Justice Department report noted that residents of the 23 states with such tracking systems in place "have in some cases turned to traveling to nearby states … to illegally obtain pharmaceuticals."

Florida officials cite a case where two dozen people from Kentucky drove 2,000 miles roundtrip to visit pill mills in Florida and purchase prescription drugs like OxyContin, Endocet, Percocet, and methadone. "We've seen people coming from all over the Southeast United States," said Rick Zenuch of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia also have seen a rise in drug runs since neighboring Kentucky installed a prescription-drug monitoring program.

Efforts to create a similar system in Florida has been stymied by cost and privacy concerns.