New Statewide Effort to Crack Down on Pill Mills
Last week I wrote about the dismantling of the Florida Office of Drug Control, which was set to oversee the effort to clamp down on pill mills by implementing the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.
While there is still question about who will oversee the program and administer it, we did learn today that Florida Attorney General-elect Pam Bondi is turning to former state senator and former assistant state attorney general David Aronberg to head a "comprehensive anti-pill mill initiative" in the state.
In a statement, Bondi said, "It is unacceptable that Florida has become the nation's pill mill capital and that multiple Floridians are dying every day from illegal prescription abuse. In cooperation with federal, state and local law enforcement, we will use all the powers and resources of the Attorney General's Office in a comprehensive effort to eradicate pill mills from our state."
We do not yet know the specifics of the "initiative" Aronberg will be leading.
As for the monitoring program there are reports it will be handed off to the state Department of Health or Department of Law Enforcement. We'll have to wait and see which agency oversees it but I can tell you after reporting numerous stories on the matter, law enforcement agencies in Broward -- particularly the Broward Sheriff's Office -- consider this a priority.
The new program will allow doctors to see when a patient received a prescription and what ailment it was for. It will enable doctors to ensure each patient is receiving a prescription for a legitimate ailment and control the amount of prescriptions a patient is getting.
Florida is one of only a handful of states without a monitoring program until the state legislature finally created the program earlier this year. It took more than 6 years to finally get it done.
Broward County has seen a meteoric rise in the number of pill mills in the county — they have more than doubled from 2008 to 2009. Several cities placed moratoriums on new pills mills being created in their communities to cut down on criminal activity.
