According to the report, 60 percent of the 2,088 deaths caused by overdoses last year were from legal medication, while 40 percent were a result of cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs.

Broward and Palm Beach counties had the highest number of deaths from the painkillers OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, and Lortab.

"I don't see a letdown in prescription-drug abuse," said Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner. "I don't think there's really a week that passes without a death from those drugs."

Perper said many of the deaths have been linked to physicians who are making a profit writing prescriptions for painkillers without a sound medical reason.

"There are a small number of physicians who have a problem and they prescribe some of them indiscriminately," Perper said. "It's very difficult for law enforcement to prove the prescription is not legitimate."

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