COUNCIL BANS PAIN MANAGEMENT CENTERS

AMITE -- The Tangipahoa Parish Council on Monday unanimously approved two
measures that set moratoriums on the opening of any so-called pain
management centers.

After hearing from Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards and Coroner
Rick Foster about the potential danger such centers pose to the parish's
residents, the council adopted a 30-day "emergency" measure that prohibits
the granting of occupancy or occupations permits or licenses by any parish
department or agency for pain management centers.

The council then introduced and set for public hearing a similar ordinance
that establishes a six-month moratorium on the permitting of pain
management centers. This measure states that building and occupation
permits or licenses cannot be issued to any business whose "primary focus
or concentration is the prescribing and dispensing of pain medication to
individuals with complaints of chronic pain which is unaffiliated with any
hospital or facility for the treatment of the terminally ill."

The measure, which will discussed at public hearing May 16 before the
regular 6 p.m. council meeting, at which final approval will be considered,
covers only the unincorporated areas.

Parish Councilman Carlos Notariano, in introducing both measures, said he
wanted to be ahead of any group that is eyeing Tangipahoa Parish as a place
to locate a pain center.

Edwards told the council that illegitimate businesses have been established
in Orleans, St. Tammany and other area parishes where hundreds of patients
are being seen on a daily basis and given strong pain-killing prescription
drugs.

"In a move against a pain center in St. Tammany Parish, the Sheriff's
Office found that one individual had accumulated $5.5 million in cash and
amassed about $4 million in property in only the few years that he was in
business," Edwards said.

The sheriff added that law enforcement officials in other parishes have
told him that these centers, founded by people who are not doctors, hire
doctors and pay them to write prescriptions for painkillers.

The sheriff added that many of these drugs are finding their way onto the
streets where they are sold to anyone who has the money to pay for them.

Edwards said that these pain centers do not accept payment through
insurance or Medicare and deal only in cash. "They pay their doctors in
cash ... and he can make as much as $250 per patient ... you figure out how
much money they are making in this business," the sheriff said.

He added that in some cases drugstores were next to the centers so that the
center operators could make money on both ends of the transaction.

Foster said that 18 deaths from drug overdoses were recorded in Tangipahoa
Parish last year, a figure double that of the year before.

Deploring the pain centers, Foster said that one doctor, whose name he
would not reveal, has allegedly been implicated in the deaths of more than
300 people through the illicit writing of prescriptions.

Foster said the ordinances "at least put these people on notice that they
are being watched."

On another matter, the council, at the urging of Councilman Guy Buckley,
approved a moratorium on paying of overtime to salaried supervisors unless
such pay is mandated by the Department of Labor.

At the last council meeting, Buckley balked at paying a bill for $1,700 in
overtime submitted by Registrar of Voters John Russell. Assistant Director
of Finances Jeff McKneely told the council at that time such overtime had
been paid in the past and that Russell was paid on that basis.

Buckley did not set a time limit for his moratorium and said after the
meeting, "I hope it's a permanent moratorium ... we don't need to be paying
these people overtime."