CLINICS DISPENSING DRUGS FACE STRICTURES

Council Issues Ban, Plans To Limit Sites

The St. Bernard Parish Council is issuing a moratorium on new pain
management clinics because, officials said, they want to change zoning laws
to make it more difficult for such businesses to operate in the parish.

Parish and sheriff's officials said the clinics can prescribe or dispense
prescription pain pills that can be abused.

St. Bernard Parish Coroner Bryan Bertucci praised the council's effort to
limit establishments that make such medicines more accessible. He said two
people died this week from overdosing on prescription drugs, though
officials say the deaths are not linked to local clinics.

Bertucci said pain management clinics typically provide prescriptions for
painkillers, such as Vicodin and Soma, to patients who say they suffer from
chronic pain. Some clinics also offer their patients methadone to wean them
from painkillers. When patients abuse the medicines and mix them, they can die.

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens said he supports a council
moratorium and that he has stopped issuing occupational licenses for pain
management clinics.

"I think there are legitimate pain management clinics, but I think this
whole system (of prescribing narcotics) needs to be tightened up," he said.

Maj. Marcel David, who heads Stephens' Special Investigations Division,
said his officers handle at least one overdose daily.

Officials said they cannot attribute any local overdose deaths to the three
or four clinics in the parish, but they support efforts to make it harder
for such businesses to open or to limit where they can be located.

Councilman Craig Taffaro, who is a certified counselor, said he believes
the council will pass the moratorium at Tuesday's council meeting so parish
officials can design new zoning laws to limit where the clinics can
operate. The clinics can't be banned because government can't discriminate
against one type of business, he said.

The council recently used a special zoning designation to limit where
barrooms can open. In January, the council issued a 180-day moratorium on
permits for tattoo and body-piercing parlors, as well as on adult
bookstores, massage parlors, motels offering hourly rates and
establishments that provide live adult entertainment.

Bertucci supports Taffaro's proposed moratorium on pain management clinics.

"I think it's good that it's at least being discussed and addressed, and it
may make the people running these clinics nervous," Bertucci said.