Pill Mill Bill Goes To Scott

May 7, 2011

With a key lawmaker likening it to a war, the Florida Legislature unanimously passed a bill Friday that seeks to wipe out the state’s pill-mill industry and curb prescription-drug abuse.

Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi made a rare appearance in the House chamber as lawmakers gave final approval to the bill (HB 7095) in the closing hours of the legislative session.

Bondi helped broker a deal between the House and Senate that is designed to crack down on unscrupulous clinics, doctors and pharmacies that have made Florida a magnet for drug users and traffickers.

“Quite simply, we’re at war,” said House sponsor Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill. “We’re at war with this prescription-drug epidemic.”

The bill, in part, will increase criminal and administrative penalties against doctors who are involved in prescription-drug wrongdoing. Also, it would ban most doctors from dispensing two categories of controlled substances in their offices or clinics.

At the same time, the bill will require a new permitting process for pharmacies that want to dispense dangerous painkillers — an effort to prevent fly-by-night pharmacies from acting as suppliers.

Also, lawmakers decided to continue moving forward with a controversial prescription-drug database that will help track sales of controlled substances. Scott and some legislative leaders called earlier this year for eliminating the database because of concerns about infringing on patient privacy.

Senate sponsor Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said the database is slated to start operating by Aug. 28, after numerous delays.

House and Senate debates Friday focused more on the devastation of prescription-drug abuse than the details of the bill. Unscrupulous storefront clinics have operated in various parts of the state in recent years, drawing addicts from as far away as Kentucky.

But Paul Sloan, president of the Florida Society of Pain Management Providers, questioned the effectiveness of the bill.

For example, Sloan pointed to a legislative decision that will bar the use of financial contributions from the pharmaceutical industry to help pay for the prescription-drug database. Lawmakers have refused to use tax dollars to pay for the database, and the decision will eliminate a potential $1 million contribution from the drug company Purdue Pharma.

More broadly, Sloan said in an email that lawmakers should deal with addiction issues that drive demand for the drugs, rather than trying to “arrest our way out of the predicament.”

“This so-called solution has a 40-year history of outright failure, yet we repeat it every year,” Sloan said.

The debate Friday was personal to some lawmakers, who talked about constituents or family members who have struggled with addictions to drugs such as oxycodone.

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said some bad doctors have gotten away with “murder” by supplying prescription drugs to users. He said the epidemic has particularly hit young people.

“It’s not a rich person’s problem, it’s not a poor person’s problem,” Bennett said. “It’s a kids’ problem.”

Rep. Rich Glorioso, a Plant City Republican who has a family member with a prescription-drug problem, said the bill will keep young people from dying.

“Tonight, we have an opportunity to stop … the death, the destruction of our young ones, our future leaders,” Glorioso said.

Bondi has made combating pill mills one of her top priorities and said she was on the phone at 3 a.m. Friday with House Speaker Dean Cannon to try to get agreement on the bill.

One of the final issues was a House proposal that would have banned drug wholesalers from selling to a retail pharmacy more than 5,000 “unit doses” a month of oxycodone, hydrocodone or other types of often-abused drugs.

Bondi said that limit would be too low for some legitimate pharmacies, such as those near the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. The negotiations led lawmakers to drop the 5,000 unit-dose limit but require a study to determine a more-appropriate amount.

Also watching closely Friday was physician Stephanie Haridopolos, the wife of Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.

Stephanie Haridopolos said she tried to make sure her husband didn’t “waver” on issues such as the drug-monitoring database. She said she has seen patients who have asked for help dealing with prescription-drug problems and expressed frustration with doctors who supply addicts.

“They should have penalties like attempted murder,” the family-practice doctor said.

By Jim Saunders
The News Service of Florida

Comments

9 Responses to “Pill Mill Bill Goes To Scott”

  1. dnutjob on May 9th, 2011 7:00 pm

    This won’t work, dont get the addiction to start with, and if you do detox, just like food or drink, dont put it in your mouth over and over. Personal responsibility has gone out the window.

  2. I can't believe you short sighted idiots on May 8th, 2011 1:43 pm

    And what about the legitimate patients that truly need serious pain medications? This will make the legitimate prescribers of meds afraid to take care of the legitimate needs of the cancer patient or the long term sufferer of chronic pain. This type of legislation will only hurt the real patients and not the “druggies” who will be able to get off of the medication because they had no real need of the meds in the first place. While the legitimate patient will suffer needlessly because of you short sighted idiots.

  3. Bam on May 8th, 2011 1:37 pm

    Yes … it will be as effective as it is illegal to smoke marijuana.

  4. huh on May 8th, 2011 7:38 am

    What about people that eat too much and are addicted to food, should we create a database of people that are addicted to eating so we can monitor them? Or maybe break up the grocery/shopping centers so they cant get their fix in the same place.

  5. Sierra on May 7th, 2011 4:00 pm

    What about people that have an addiction – these people are not trying to get high, they are keeping the withdrawal hell at bay. They may have truly needed the pain meds to begin with but became physically and mentally addicted to them. The people you are judging are housewives, clergy, teachers and even doctors, The opiate chemical is powerful. If this epidemic is to be controlled, there needs to be free or low cost rehab centers for people who are living with an addiction they can no longer control without professional help.

  6. jean-paul on May 7th, 2011 10:32 am

    this is all a farce as far as im concerned, big deal, a database to track who is getting what. its a joke and wont do a damn thing to stop people from getting what they want, and more importantly..what they need. hello people, theses are addicts, do you really think they are just going to say…oohh a database, oh well no more pills for me..lol lets be real here!! proabition, did nothin, and niether will this. it is a waist of taxpayers money and a total invasion of americand privavy. what about the hippa act, may as well throw that out the window. now officials will have access to your medical records, will know who has diseases and who is sick. soon insurence companies will have access as well. good luck getting coverage when its public record that you have cancer or hiv. people will ulltimatly get there pills and no database or any other lamb brain tracking system will stop them. all this will do is force addicts to go to further extreme meassures and raise the street value of these pills. but make no mistake, they will get them!!! this whole program is a joke and it is unconstitutional, we may as well admitt it..we have become a communist goverment, people have no rites and now have no privacy. scott, you are a worm..first I commended you for standing up for people and their rights and for being so adiment about not having this database, but now you have all of a sudden changed your mind. good thing you are govener of florida, being you love the flip flop so much. your a putz, and either way your time is up, thank god…..get a grip people, this is not going away!!!!!

  7. VICKI HARRISON on May 7th, 2011 8:20 am

    FINALLY SOMETHING WILL BE DONE ABOUT OVER PRESCRIBING NARCOTICS. HOPE IT WORKS…MY HUSBAND HAS A BIG PROBLEM WITH MORPHINE SULFATE. HE HAS ARTHRITIS AND IS PRESCRIBED 60 MILLIGRAMS A DAY WHICH HE NEEDS BUT THEY ALSO PRESCRIBED A QUICK RELEASE MORPHINE SULFATE WHICH I KNOW HE DOESN’T NEED…

  8. Not enough! on May 7th, 2011 8:18 am

    This should be just a start! Doesn’t go far enough to take care of the problem. Arrest a few doctors would help!

    Make it harder to get drugs, then maybe — Ole Rush — would move to another state!

  9. VICKI HARRISON on May 7th, 2011 8:09 am

    FINALLY SOMETHING WILL BE DONE ABOUT OVER PRESCRIBING NARTCOTICS. HOPE IT WORKS…

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News