Despite more than 1,200 “pill mills” operating in the State of Florida and an equal number of deaths from prescription drug overdose in 2010, Gov. Rick Scott and his wrecking crew are pushing to repeal the prescription drug database created by lawmakers last year.
Long a bone of contention, the drug database was finally approved by the Florida Legislature in 2009. The database is aimed at tracking people who are abusing prescription drug medication or who are selling them on the street. Operating successfully in 34 states across the U.S., the database aids in preventing addicts from doctor shopping.
Many in the Legislature, local officials and medical profession all agree that when used correctly, the database is an important tool against “pill mills” and doctor shopping, and will have disastrous consequences for Florida if the program is eliminated.
Not yet operational in Florida, one person who is confident that the database would play an important role in fighting the prescription drug problem is Claude Shipley, who helped in its development.
“After the database starts operating the “pill mills” customer base can be significantly chilled within one year, such that a majority would go out of business,” said Shipley, reports the News Service of Florida.
Canceling the prescription drug monitoring program and database will not only have implications for the state, but Florida’s pain clinics provide much of the drugs that over-run other states.
Although Florida’s prescription drug database is not an expenditure of the state budget, Scott and several of his cronies are working to squash it, even before it becomes operational. Privacy concerns loom large on the part of those who oppose the database.
“Is that a function of government to track the activities of law-abiding people in order to track a small subset of criminal behavior?”, Scott’s spokesman Brian Hughes asked, reports the News Service of Florida.
Meanwhile, the House is getting set to release a proposed Committee bill later this week, to outlaw the prescription database.
House Speaker Dean Cannon said Monday, “the House will move to ban the sale of prescription drugs directly out of doctor’s offices as a way of fighting “drug dealers who are masquerading as doctors,” reports the News Service of Florida.
Scott and his wrecking crew continue apace, to turn Florida’s sunshine state into a sunset state.
