Legislators inadvertently give 'pill mills' a break

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seep

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TALLAHASSEE -- In their zeal to slow down government regulations, Florida lawmakers have inadvertently halted an effort to regulate so-called ``pill mills'' that fuel an epidemic of prescription drug abuse.

The regulations were set to take effect Sunday for most pain clinics. But they are stalled by a new law intended to crack down on expensive state regulations. The law requires legislative approval of rules that have a significant fiscal impact.

That means the regulations could be in limbo until next spring when the 2011 legislative session convenes, according to state health officials.

``I would like legislators to explain the fact that the drug epidemic continues to grow while they remain silent,'' said Lynn Locascio, a Crystal Beach woman who founded Parents Against Prescription Drug Addiction. ``We feel like we're back to square one banging our heads against the wall.''


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/23/1940705/legislators-inadvertently-give.html#ixzz16D171ytp
 
recipe for ending the war on drugs: restrict government spending
 
Florida is still having problems with all those "pill mills" down there? I thought they put an end to that like last year???
 
Herbal~Jah said:
Florida is still having problems with all those "pill mills" down there? I thought they put an end to that like last year???
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Yup. These places are still up and running and attracting people all up and down the east coast of the U.S. I can drive one mile from my home in any direction and find a clinic... And during business hours, these clinics will have cars parked in the lots in and around said clinics with plates on them that identify them as being from Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and even Michigan.

The really fucked up thing is that these places ADVERTISE in the very papers that these articles are written in. There was a HUGE front page article in a local magazine here in Fort Lauderdale about these pill mills.... and then you flipped through a few more pages and there are literally 5-6 pages of ads saying "Get help for your pain TODAY!" And then in small print: detox available.

Oh. The. Irony.
 
Florida is one of the only states left that doesnt have a prescription drug monitoring program. I believe its because of all the senior citizens down there and they are scared of losing access to their pills but that is just speculation...
 
Damien said:
Why is there this scene in FL and not so much in other states?
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Cubans and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The heroin trade in S. Florida over the past 15 years has been loosely run by a number of parallel groups (Colombians, Haitians, Cubans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Bahamians, some others). The Colombians have been the most active it seems to me, but there ain't that many of them: not enough to really put muscle on the street. The Haitians are by far the most aggressive, but they're too crazy (I mean Haitians simply do not give a shit about commercial longevity, or about much else). The other groups rise and fall depending on the whims of the cops.

So then of course Cubans are the largest ethnic group in South Florida. If this were the 80s and doctors were prescribing cocaine analogues en masse in the counties north of Dade, there'd have been bloodshed. But the Cubans that came to the US during and after the collapse of the USSR (like myself) weren't the crazy Tony Montana Cubans of the Mariel. The came to a Miami where the most profitable racket wasn't drugs. There was a much more profitable racket available during the 90s and 00s (I'll not name that racket here).

So then there was no militant cartel-type presence to impede South Florida doctors from doing what they've done.

In that milieu, Oxycontin hit the market.

On top of that, the clinics essentially bought the media by plastering local newspapers with their ads (some of which read like restaurant menus).

Moreover (as mentioned above) a lot of Florida's voters are heavily medicated, so restricting medical freedom has not been the most prudent thing for a politician to do.

Also, the Republican Party's top cheerleader is a long-time Oxycontin addict, and his sources were South Floridian.

Also, the recovery industries in Delray Beach and Pompano Beach are among the nation's most robust.

perfect storm
 
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