It’s been called the “pill mill capital of the nation,” but Florida’s reputation could soon go away thanks to the state’s effort to crack down on the illegal sale of prescription drugs. As Sascha Cordner reports, several state officials say while they’ve been successful so far, there’s more to be done.
It’s been a year since the creation of the Statewide Drug Enforcement Strike Force, and so far, they’ve made more than 21-hundred arrests and seized nearly a half-a-million pills. Attorney General Pam Bondi says she’s glad for the effort, but wishes something could have been done for people who already lost their loved ones to the pill mill epidemic:
“I had to hug a mother who lost her daughter two years ago to prescription drugs and those drugs were bought here in Florida. So, hopefully, that’s going to stop with our new legislation and with the tremendous work that our strike force has done.”
In 2010, Florida had 90 of the nation’s top 100 Oxycodone purchasing doctors. That number has now dropped to 13. Also, in 2010, there were more than 800 pain clinics in the state, and now it’s dipped to 508.
