Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the Orlando City Council will hold a public hearing today and vote on the second read of an ordinance that will regulate pain management clinics in the City of Orlando.
If approved, the ordinance will temporarily prevent the opening of any new pain management clinics in the City of Orlando. In addition the ordinance would require these clinics to begin accepting electronic funds and limit the hours of operation to between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
A Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force including law enforcement officers, legal staff and other key City staff will be established to better understand the current epidemic of prescription pain medication abuse and the pain management clinic industry in the City of Orlando. The Task Force will also report and make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council based on their findings.
The temporary moratorium will go into effect on Monday, February 7 if approved and continue until either January 1, 2012, or until City Council adopts an ordinance repealing the moratorium based on findings from the report by the Task Force.
Florida is considered the epicenter of the Pill Mill epidemic. Last Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi in an effort to combat “pill mills” asked the Legislature for tougher penalties to prosecute doctors at pain management clinics who dole lout huge amounts of prescription medication to drug dealers and addicts. Nonetheless, the State lacks an effective statewide prescription drug monitoring system.
