Prescription tracking bill heads to Crist
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Florida’s role as the nation’s leading supplier of prescription drugs obtained for illicit purposes could be reduced, if not ended, by a bill that was sent to Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday.
The measure would set up a prescription tracking system designed to crack down on “doctor shopping” by addicts and drug dealers who flock to Florida from throughout the Southeast.
That’s because their own states already collect data on pain killers such as oxycodone and other potentially lethal drugs dispensed by pharmacies and clinics. Florida is the largest of only 12 states without such tracking systems.
Authorities say it’s a trade that’s claiming thousands of lives because of overdoses.
An average of nine people a day die in Florida from abusing prescription drugs, three times the rate for other drugs, said the House sponsor, Rep. Marcelo Llorente, R-Miami.
“Let’s do what we can to put these pain mills out of business, these pain mills that are enabling the senseless loss of life,” Llorente urged the House.
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials say South Florida’s Broward County, where doctors wrote prescriptions for more than 6.5 million oxycodone pills from June to December 2008, is the nation’s top supplier of the narcotic.
Pain clinics are advertising in newspapers for people to come to Broward for fun and pills, said Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach.
Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said that it looks like a good bill, but that the governor hasn’t taken a public position yet.
Opponents, though, argued the bill (SB 462) would violate privacy rights by tracking citizens and their activities.
“I believe the way to address it is by going after the doctors,” said Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami. “Through this bill we’re going after the patients.”
Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, said it lacks safeguards to protect against security breaches that could compromise personal data, but the chamber rejected amendments he said would strengthen it.
Other critics say it’s just too weak to be effective.
“This legislation is nothing but a feel-good attempt by lawmakers to say they took action,” said Michael P. McManus, a private investigator and former supervisor with the Drug Enforcement Administration. “Florida will remain a national laughingstock when it comes to shutting down dangerous pill mills.”
The House passed the bill 103-10. It previously cleared Senate by a unanimous vote.