46 ARRESTS ORDERED IN DRUG INQUIRY

TALLAHASSEE - Florida agents said Tuesday they have arrested a
Melbourne doctor and his assistant and issued 44 other arrest warrants
in connection with a wide-scale investigation into the trafficking of
the painkiller OxyContin and other drugs.

The announcement brought renewed calls for a law to help doctors,
pharmacists and law enforcement authorities identify drug addicts and
their suppliers. Senior officials in Gov. Jeb Bush's administration
want legislators to pass a bill creating a database tracking the
millions of prescription narcotics that pharmacists across Florida
dispense.

The push for the law followed news the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, state health
and local authorities have been investigating for more than a year the
"We Really Care" pain clinic in Melbourne.

Dr. Sarfraz A. Mirza and an office assistant, Jackie Leblanc, were
arrested and were being held at the Brevard County Jail. Mirza was
charged with 11 counts of trafficking in OxyContin and delivery or
sale of other controlled substances. Leblanc was charged with
obtaining OxyContin, prescription fraud and conspiracy.

FDLE Interim Commissioner Daryl McLaughlin said drug addicts were able
to get pills through the clinic by using fraudulent prescriptions. He
and other state officials, including drug control director Jim
McDonough, pledged to revive a fight to get a statewide computer
database to track prescriptions for narcotic painkillers and other
controlled drugs.

"Not only would it make us more efficient and more effective, but it
would send a clear message to folks across the state who ... prey on
unsuspecting, and in some cases, innocent individuals," McLaughlin
said. "In this day of automation, there is no excuse for not having
this kind of system in place."

The goal of the computerized system, McDonough said, would be to cut
down on so-called "doctor shopping," in which patients visit several
physicians to obtain drugs, either to feed their addiction or to sell
on the street.

The monitoring system would be capable of retrieving a patient's drug
history while the patient is still in the examining room, or waiting
at the pharmacy. Eighteen other states have put some prescription
monitoring system in place, but most take significant time, some
taking several weeks, before a doctor or pharmacist can learn of a
patient's drug use history.

A bill that would have created an electronic prescription data bank in
Florida has been debated for more than three years in the
Legislature.