Pill Mill Victims Hope Raids Continue
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Twenty-four hours after federal agents conducted a massive raid of rogue pain clinics in South Florida; the emotion is still raw for those who lost loved ones to prescription drug abuse.
"I was crying, I was ecstatic," said Renee Doyle.
Renee lost her son Blayne to a prescription drug addiction. She said that while the roundup on Wednesday was good, there's still plenty left to accomplish.
"It was such a victory, not the end, but the beginning and we're gonna continue with that perseverance,' Renee said.
She described how her son could easily get the medications to feed his addictions from the pill mills around South Florida.
"He had an old MRI, and had no problem getting oxycodone and xanax all at one visit," Renee said.
Despite the pill mills and the addictions they can easily further, Florida Governor Rick Scott remains firm in opposition to a prescription database that would track who's buying what painkillers and when.
"It is an invasion of privacy and will cost too much," Governor Scott said.
But activists like Tina Reed say they still plan to confront the governor at the state capital over the prescription drug database.
"It disturbs me Governor Scott doesn't see this is an important tool and a problem in our state," Reed said. "Is saving seven people a day less important than privacy?"
Federal officials are warning the more than 100 pill mills still operating in Broward County to not get complacent because more raids are on the way.
