Prescriptions would be tracked under bill
PENSACOLA (AP) – The labels on the pill bottles in her dead son’s apartment drove Laurie Serra from grief to anger. Now, she’s pushing to change Florida law.
Matthew Serra died of a prescription drug overdose at 28: Loratab, oxycodone and other painkillers. The former college swimming star, who started taking the drugs for a sports injury, never had a problem finding doctors near his Pinellas County home to write his prescriptions or pharmacies to fill them.
Florida is the largest of 12 states without a system to track prescription narcotics, and experts say this and the state’s abundance of storefront pain management clinics draws addicts and pill suppliers from throughout the country. Legislators hope to change that this year by creating a prescription database for doctors, pharmacists and law enforcement, partly in response to criticism from other state governments that are tired of having their residents die of prescription overdoses with painkillers bought in Florida.
The bill would also require pain clinics to register with the state and submit to annual inspections. One loophole, however, is that owners and key employees would not have to undergo background checks, which is required for workers at many other types of clinics.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, passed the state Senate 39-0 last week and the House will likely consider it this week – although similar bills have died the last seven years because of privacy and cost concerns. Serra believes a tracking system might have warned legitimate doctors and pharmacists who unwittingly fueled her son’s addiction and flagged other doctors for law enforcement.
The bill’s advocates said it is incredibly easy to get painkillers in Florida, particularly South Florida. Its numerous strip mall medical clinics, where patients can drop in and get prescriptions for any type of pain, have given the region the nickname of the nation’s “pill mill.” In 2008 there were 60 pain management clinics in South Florida, according to a study by the Miami Herald. This month, the newspaper found 150 pain management clinics in the region.
“Matthew learned what doctors he could call to get the prescriptions readily,” she said. “He could go to three different pharmacies and there is no way of the Publix checking to see what CVS has filled on the same patient and the doctors cannot check to see what other doctors have prescribed for a patient.”
Experts say about nine Floridans die of prescription drug overdoses each day, which is more than die from illegal drugs.
“If we had nine or 10 manatees washing up on our shores every day we would be outraged and yet we have nine to 10 people a day dying of prescription drug overdoses,” said Rep. Kurt Kelly, R-Ocala.
The region’s leading alternative newspaper typically has more than a dozen pain clinic ads each week. All promise drug dispensing onsite and some even offer discounts off the doctor’s exam. According to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Broward County doctors wrote prescriptions for more than 6.5 million Oxycodone pills from June to December 2008, making the county the nation’s top supplier of the powerful narcotic. Calls to several pain clinics seeking comment were not returned.
“The epicenter of the epidemic is in Broward County. We are the pill mill for the rest of the country. We are killing people not only in our own state but in Kentucky, Tennessee and in Ohio. We have done such a poor job of regulating this industry that we are creating addicts,” said Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton and a supporter of prescription tracking.
Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway supports the Florida legislation and has closely followed it, said spokeswoman Shelley Johnson.
“The drug pipeline that exists between Kentucky and Florida must be stopped. I applaud any effort by Florida legislators to slow the illegal diversion of prescription drugs for trafficking,” Conway said in a statement.