LOCAL LEGISLATORS WRITE BILLS TO THWART DRUG, DAY-CARE DEATHS

TALLAHASSEE -- Deaths by overdose and at day-care centers are leading
two local legislators to sponsor bills aimed at preventing them.

Volusia County's Sen. Locke Burt wants to crack down on prescription
painkillers and Rep. Evelyn Lynn wants to tighten licensing of
child-care facilities overseen by religious groups.

The proposals by the two Ormond Beach Republicans are in response to
deaths in Volusia County and will be debated during the upcoming
legislative session.

Burt is sponsoring three measures aimed at toughening requirements on
prescription drugs, including a pharmaceutical for pain relief that
is a proven killer in Volusia County.

OxyContin, manufactured by Purdue Pharma, is blamed for the deaths of
370 people in Florida over a 13-month period beginning July 2000. And
medical officials believe the drug is behind five deaths in Volusia
County during the first six months of last year, nearly twice the
total number recorded during the same period the year before.

The powerful painkiller is abused because it offers a heroin-like
high, say drug officials.

The proposals include creating a database -- available only to
physicians, pharmacists and law enforcers -- to keep track of drug
prescriptions (SB 636, 638) and making the illegal prescription of
drugs by physicians punishable with prison time (SB 640).

Gov. Jeb Bush has already touted the pieces of legislation, which are
being sponsored in the House by Rep. Larry Crow, R-Dunedin.

The death last year of a toddler at a church-run day-care center in
Daytona Beach is behind Lynn's proposal (HB 175) to have the state in
charge of licensing child-care facilities overseen by religious
groups.

Two-year-old Zaniyah Hinson died Aug. 10 after being left by a worker
with the Abundant Life Academy of Learning, affiliated with Abundant
Life Ministries, for two hours in a van in which temperature soared
as high as 127 degrees, authorities said.

Prosecutors have filed manslaughter and neglect charges in the case,
but children's advocates said the incident underscored the problem
with an exemption in the state's day-care licensing law for church-
based schools that also offer day-care services.

Officials behind such facilities argue that government oversight will
reach beyond licensing and threaten the wall separating church and
state.

Under existing law, church-run day-care centers are only exempt from
state licensing regulations if they prove their standards meet or
exceed the ones governing state-licensed facilities.