{
  "id": "2000-november-raving-the-wrong-way",
  "slug": "2000-november-raving-the-wrong-way",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2000-november-raving-the-wrong-way.html",
  "year": 2000,
  "month": "November",
  "monthNum": 11,
  "headline": "Raving the wrong way",
  "kicker": "DRUGS",
  "author_name": "Hanque Curtis",
  "author_title": "Reporter",
  "affiliation": "Orlando Sentinel",
  "summary": "A reporter used computer-assisted reporting to uncover flawed data in Florida's designer drug death study, revealing that state officials had improperly counted 80 cases unrelated to drug abuse, including terminal cancer patients and nursing home residents.",
  "keywords": [
    "databases",
    "investigation",
    "Florida"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Crime & Justice",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Access"
  ],
  "full_text": "Raving the wrong way\n\nBy Hanque Curtis\nOrlando Sentinel\n\nAnything can happen in Florida, including counting great-grandmothers as rave victims in a state drug abuse study. That's what a few clicks of the computer showed. Now, months later, facts forced Gov. Jeb Bush's drug czar to remove 80 names from a list cited as evidence of an epidemic of designer drug-related deaths. Those cases included terminal cancer patients who shot themselves. Nursing home patients who fell. And a four-year-old boy treated for spinal meningitis. None had any ties to illegal drug abuse.\n\nThis came to light thanks to a two-day IRE workshop on computer-assisted reporting. When it ended, I started looking for a story to put to use what I had learned.\n\nFirst ideas\n\nThe first couple of ideas seemed too complex.\n\nThen, I heard that state officials had asked medical examiners to cull their files from 1997 through 1999 for any cases that tested positive for any of 20 \"designer\" drugs associated with raves and all-night dancing. Having reported on heroin abuse in Central Florida since 1996, I was looking for ways to expand my coverage. So I submitted a public records request for the confirmed cases, hoping to identify and track trends in designer drug abuse.\n\nThe request seemed routine, but a spokesman for the year-old Office of Drug Control claimed it would be necessary to contact each law enforcement agency that might have investigated the deaths to make sure the cases were public.\n\nTo prevent being delayed for months, I suggested blacking out the victims' names but leaving such vital statistics as age, sex, race, date of death, the medical examiner's district and the drugs detected. I asked for this knowing it could be used to identify the victims and obtain their autopsy reports, if needed.\n\nRecord requests\n\nWhile waiting for the statewide information, I submitted public records requests to the medical examiners in the six counties of Central Florida for copies of the records they provided for the designer-drug study. This made certain I would have complete information on the cases in The Sentinel's coverage area.\n\nThe local cases arrived within days. While waiting for the statewide information, I created an Access table for 60 local deaths submitted to the Office of Drug Control for review. The table had 13 fields of information for each case. Besides recording vital statistics, the fields included day of the week of each death, the presence of alcohol, if the victim met the typical age range of designer drug users, cause of death and circumstances of death.\n\nTracking this information was wonderfully easy.\n\nIt was nothing compared to what I used to do. Back in 1997, another reporter and I copied all information from more than 3,800 traffic tickets issued by a drug squad patrolling Florida's Turnpike to write a story about racial profiling. The information filled a small pile of legal pads. Then, we had to add column after column of numbers. Finally, we had to double-check each other's math.\n\nNow, all I have to do is remember to use the correct commands.\n\nData arrives\n\nWhen the statewide information on designer-drug deaths arrived three weeks later, it quickly became obvious that the study was riddled with mistakes.\n\nIn case after case, the victims appeared too young or too old to be designer-drug users. Eighty-four of the 254 victims ranged in age from 38 to 84 years old. The youngest was six months old. And records showed that it was unlikely that many of the cases had been scrutinized before being included in the study. Out of 33 cases submitted by one medical examiner for review, the state listed all 33 as confirmed cases of designer drug abuse. These included an 80-year-old Alzheimer's patient and a 75-year-old woman who died from asthma. Many others had tested positive for common painkillers or methamphetamines. The latter has been a commonly abused drug for more than 50 years, and its abuse in Florida is associated with farm workers, truck drivers and bikers. It did not seem likely that 40- and 50-year-old men who died in truck crashes had much to do with the state's rave culture. Reporting this involved cherry picking the most questionable cases in Central Florida, my area of coverage, as well as some from Miami and St. Petersburg to give the story statewide context. This involved contacting the three medical examiners' offices responsible for those areas and, in some cases, local law enforcement agencies to obtain reports on the deaths.\n\nAt the same time, I requested all written communications between the state Medical Examiners Commission and the Office of Drug Control about the creation of the study.\n\nThese 150 pages of records provided me with a timeline showing the study had been conducted in less than three months. It was done within that relatively tight window for a first-of-its-kind-study in Florida so the state's new drug czar, Jim McDonough, could present it at a drug summit of state legislators in February.\n\nMcDonough told the summit that his findings on designer drug abuse came from personally reading death reports and \"a very thorough, autopsy-by-autopsy review.\"\n\nThe Access tables and queries I created showed that the state's top drug abuse expert was mistaken. The state list of 254 deaths, now reduced to 174, remains under review. Meanwhile, I am able to track designer drug-related deaths in Florida's 67 counties simply by logging into my own database.\n\nHanque Curtis can be reached by e-mail at hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
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  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2000-november-raving-the-wrong-way.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2000-november-raving-the-wrong-way.json"
}