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Tallahassee, FL – Florida has a reputation as a source state for prescription drugs an under-regulated destination for people from other states looking to buy and sell painkillers. Now, as Margie Menzel reports, the Legislature is poised to take action.
Six Floridians die each day from a prescription drug overdose - five times as many deaths as from all illegal drugs combined. A new pain management clinic opens in Broward and Palm Beach counties every three days. Senator Mike Fasano, Republican of New Port Richey, is sponsoring a measure to regulate the clinics, or pill mills.
"They stand on line at the pain management clinics down in South Florida to get their prescriptions, and then head out somewhere on the street to either sell that prescription or go and get it filled at some unscrupulous pharmacy," Fasano said. "And then they either take it back to their home state or they sell it before they leave."
Fasano's SB 2272 would require training for physicians who prescribe controlled substances and allow the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to give information to law enforcement on possible illegal practices.