I transferred from the beaches to the northern part of the county to take over the evening shift in Jan. 2000. In the beach area, we didn't run into Oxycontin at all. As soon as I arrived in the central area, all hell broke loose.
About 1/3 of the crimes my shift covered (the busiest, largest, 2 districts) were related to Oxycontin. We had a couple of local Dr's who were slinging it about with abandon. One had lines forming at his "pain management" office. People were coming from as far as Texas. We had everything from home invasions to armed robberies, to burglaries and plain old ass whuppins over Oxycontin. Then we had about a dozen deaths from ODing on it. After a lengthy surveillance of the principal offending doctor, we, along with DEA and FDLE shut him down. He was convicted a couple of months ago for manslaughter and racketeering charges. Maybe you saw him on Good Morning America, Dr. James Graves.
It is not quit as bad now. There is still a large underground market for it. We still have some armed robberies of pharmacy's because of it.
Between it and Meth lab's, it really causes lot's of problems.