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Drugs found in more than 6,700 Florida autopsies in 2003

TALLAHASSEE - Drugs were found in about 6,700 of nearly 16,000 autopsies done by medical examiners in Florida last year, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Wednesday.

Alcohol was the drug most commonly found, showing up in more than 3,400 bodies, according to an annual report compiled by medical examiners. After alcohol came tranquilizers or sleeping pills and cocaine.

In autopsies where drugs were found to be the cause of death, cocaine was the most frequent killer. Found in the bodies of 1,614 people autopsied in 2003, it caused 541 of those deaths.

After cocaine, the biggest killers were tranquilizers or sleeping pills, methadone, oxycodone, alcohol and heroin.