Judge Dismisses Challenge To Pill Mill Law

September 6, 2012

A federal judge has dismissed a constitutional challenge to a 2010 state law aimed at cracking down on so-called “pill mills.”  U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, in two orders , rejected the case filed by a patient, two doctors and two health clinics.

The 2010 law included such steps as registration requirements for pain-management clinics and limits on the amounts of controlled substances that doctors could dispense to patients who pay by cash, check or credit card. The Legislature in 2011 passed another law that revamped parts of the 2010 measure.

Hinkle closed the case after issuing an order that largely addressed the issues. He wrote that Florida has a “legitimate, indeed sometimes compelling, interest in regulating the distribution of prescription pain medications” and that it has leeway constitutionally in how it does so.

“Information available to the Florida Legislature in 2010, when it adopted the statutes now at issue, indicated that abuse of prescription pain medication was an acute and increasing problem that had caused a substantial number of deaths and other problems in the state,” Hinkle wrote. “Pill mills were out of control. The state enacted the challenged statutes to address the situation.”

By The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News