Fasano files pill mill bill
by Dara Kam | February 4th, 2011Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, filed a bill that would continue the crackdown on “pill mills,” pain management clinics dealing prescription drugs that law enforcement officials say are worse than crack cocaine.
Fasano’s bill would enhance penalties for pill mill operators that don’t comply with state laws and require the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to conform with national standards.
The drug database has been on hold because of a lack of funding and a bid dispute.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is launching a new assault on the pill mills with a team led by state drug czar Dave Aronberg. Bondi called Florida “the epicenter of the country” for prescription drug abuse because busloads of drugsters travel to the state from Kentucky, Ohio and other places to get prescriptions from the rogue clinics.
Seven Floridians each day die from overdoses of prescription drugs.
Tags: Dave Aronberg, Mike Fasano, Pam Bondi, pill mills
February 4th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
We can rebuild perfectly good libraries with stimulus money, but funding can’t be found to eliminate a national epidemic. I would be curious to see who voted for or against funding of this appropriation, and what is the bad dispute?
February 4th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Not sure what is in the bill and it would be nice if doctors had to report what they were prescribing to each patient with cooperative information from pharmacies but that sounds like an infringement of privacy. Also sounds like an expensive bureaucracy we can’t afford. It would be better to just ban Oxy but that requires the fed to make that decision. The bill sounds good but where is the oversight coming from and ability to monitor for fraud by doctors?
February 4th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Wowwww… Mr loser politician Fasano,
How about you worry about the 99.9% of Floridians that do not have any connection to junkies getting pain meds, and try to help fix the economy and create jobs for us!!!!
Who cares about theses junkies???? Let them k@ll themselves if they choose, there adults.
Worst than cocaine??? If these reporteres knew a 10th of what they were talking about, they would see that the majority of overdoses have a mix of drugs in there system, including cocaine!!!!
I dont see violent mexican drug cartels trafficking pain pills, do you???? Or people on the corner of the downtown streets slinging blue pills..
Why cant anyone get the facts strait!!!!
February 4th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I think all these overdose deaths weed out the scum in out State. These unproductive so called human beings got nothing better to do than shoot up drugs, so leave them alone. Eventually they will end up all dieng off.
February 4th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Unreal
There are systems in place in other states that do just that, these are level 2 narcotics and subject to scrutiny just as other “illegal” drugs are. The reason people are coming from other states is because their state has a database of who is buying more than is customarily dispensed. It has shut down the problem there. 97 of 100 doctors across the country prescribing these meds are from Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties. Shut it down and we won’t be spending the money we are to prosecute, surveil, and treat the people.
February 4th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
@ dr.pain and good ole boy.
Always nice to see such compassionate people posting. Maybe some people are prescribed addictive drugs by doctors as part of treatment and up addicted. Should they die?
Drug addiction usually starts to offset mental illness or difficulties. The state sounds like it is moving toward a treatment system for addicts rather than criminalizing the users. This is a step in the right direction.
Consider it could be a family member who is an addict and I bet you would change your tune.
February 4th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
Where is the Florida Medical Board? Are they not the agency to respond to complaints and pull licenses?
Legit pain docs tend to abandon their patients when prosecutors use public anger at pill mills to justify investigating legit pain docs who write script for their chronic pain patients.
February 5th, 2011 at 10:59 am
New York implemented an Official prescription program as part of their PDMP program. This program has been documented to significantly improve the overall PDMP program. It provides for millions of dollars of cost savings by stopping prescription fraud and it keeps drugs from being diverted to the streets. This is a simple way to fight this problem without limiting properly prescribed prescriptions from being filled. It should be implemented in FL as part of the overall effort to fight this problem.