By: Scott Hiaasen
Source: Miami Herald
Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday signed legislation aimed at curbing the growing black-market of illegal prescription drugs flowing from South Florida pain clinics across the eastern United States.
The new law, passed nearly unanimously in the Legislature, will require doctors and pharmacists to record patient prescriptions for most drugs in a state-controlled database. And it would enable health-care professionals and police to detect patients who go to several doctors looking for pills, or “doctor shopping”.
Florida was among only 12 states without a prescription-monitoring program, making the state a magnet for addicts and dealers seeking powerful painkillers such as oxycodone, narcotics detectives say. Florida clinics — some advertising discounts and offering coupons for gasoline — have supplied pills for narcotics rings in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio and Massachusetts.
New law may crack down on Florida illegal prescription drug market
