Feds Poised To Attack Pill Mills When Rick Scott And Florida Won't

I was pleased to read a report in the Orlando Sentinel that U.S. Representative Vern Buchanan, from Sarasota, has sponsored a bill in the United States Congress called "The Pill Mill Crackdown Act of 2011."  The bill is receiving bi-partisan support from much of the Florida delegation, including local Representatives John Mica and Corrine Brown.  Unlike Florida's leadership back here at home in Tallahassee, these folks in D.C. see a serious problem with Florida's pill mill/pain management industry, and aim to do something about it.

Frequent visitors to this blog know that I have been posting about this issue for long time.  Since taking office, Governor Rick Scott has seemed disinterested, and almost hostile, to this issue of stopping pill mills and the prescription death overdose scourge that follows them.  He has indicated that he wants to kill a prescription drug monitoring program that was to be paid for by grant and research monies, and would not cost the State of Florida one penny.  Meanwhile, experts on stopping prescription drug abuse and pill mills say that drug monitoring programs are the most effective way to fight pill mills.

The proposed federal legislation provides support for state-based monitoring programs like the one Governor Scott wants to kill.  The program would be paid for largely from funds seized from illegal drug operations.  Under the federal program, if Florida will share the data in a drug monitoring program with other states, Florida can get additional matching grant funds to sustain its program.  Additionally, it would reclassify several powerful pain drugs, making them more difficult for patients - and others - to obtain.

As an Orlando prescription drug overdose attorney, I think our federal Representatives deserve kudos for doing the work that our Tallahassee representatives seem unwilling to do in order to make Florida a safer place.  If we can save even one person from a wrongful death, the effort seems worth it.

If you have any questions about pill mills or a wrongful death as a result of a prescription drug overdose please call Orlando accident attorney Kim Michael Cullen at 407-254-4901.