IT'S TIME TO HAVE DEBATE ABOUT BANNING OXYCODONE

Activists Say Addictive Pills' Downside Outweighs Benefits

The storefront was deserted, a testament to the transient nature of
the pain clinic business.

A box of garbage bags sat on the counter near the receptionist's
window. A flier was posted on the front door: "Dr. Becker has moved to
a different location."

That was the scene at All Pain Management on Griffin Road in Dania
Beach at the time of last week's sweep by federal agents and local law
enforcement through pain clinics throughout South Florida.

Eleven alleged pill mills were shut down, and 23 people were led away
in cuffs. Watch this now! Charlie Sheen's rants against boss prompt
cancellation of 'Two and a Half Men' season

But is that enough, or does the federal government need to consider
banning the powerful and often-abused narcotics these places routinely
prescribe?

"Something has to be done," said Renee Doyle, co-founder of an
activist group that stages protest rallies outside pain clinics.
"We're losing so many of our kids -- they're all under 30."

Doyle said she was "ecstatic" when she heard about Wednesday's raids
that targeted pain clinic doctors and owners, instead of stray abusers
and traffickers.

"We just hope it's not going to be the end of it," she
said.

But with hundreds of other South Florida pain clinics, urgent care
centers, detox centers and wellness centers still available to fill
the demand of pill abusers and traffickers, last week's raids seem
like taking a garden hose to a forest fire.

Especially with no prescription drug database in place to detect
doctor-shoppers who illegally stockpile pills with multiple clinic
visits in short bursts.

Doyle lost one son to pill addiction at age 27 in 2009 (he was struck
by a car and killed after wandering into the street in a drug daze)
and has another one in recovery. Prescription drugs are blamed for an
estimated seven deaths daily in Florida.

She formed STOPP Now (Stop The Organized Pill Pushers) with two
friends in 2010.

Doyle said she plans to travel to Tallahassee in early March to lobby
legislators and revive support for the drug database, which Gov. Rick
Scott has tried to kill.

"We have to convince the governor to change his mind," Doyle
said.

Beyond a database, Doyle and group co-founder Janet Colbert said
they'd really like to see an outright federal ban on oxycodone, the
drug of choice among pill abusers.

"Why not just have them stop producing the stuff?" said Colbert, a
neonatal nurse alarmed by the rise in newborns who show signs of
prescription pill withdrawal. "This is like heroin -- it's highly addictive."

Said Doyle, also a nurse: "I think oxycodone should only be used for
end-stage cancer. It shouldn't be a lifelong drug. For people who have
chronic pain, they have to learn a different way."

Colbert said the federal government could repeat what it did with
Quaaludes, a highly abused sedative, in the early 1980s: halt
production and distribution after reclassifying it as a drug no longer
accepted for medical use.

Paul Sloan, a pain clinic owner and president of the Florida Society
of Pain Management Providers, said banning oxycodone would be an
overreaction.

"It's zealotry, and it's irresponsible," said Sloan, who strongly
backs a prescription drug database. "It would be like Mothers Against
Drunk Driving demanding that Budweiser be banned. There'd still be
plenty of other painkillers and opiates that could be abused."

Sloan said there's a reason oxycodone has become the top prescribed
drug for moderate to severe pain: It works, and doesn't have as many
side effects as other pain pills.

He said staging a "witch-hunt" against the drug will only hurt
legitimate pain patients who depend on it.

"There's no fix for a failed back surgery -- you don't cure chronic
pain," said Sloan, who got into the pain clinic business four years
ago and is not a physician. "In some cases, they're on these
medications for life."

Doyle said she regards oxycodone as more addictive and dangerous than
other pain pills. The drug surged in popularity in the mid 1990s, when
manufacturer Purdue Pharma marketed a time-release version known as
OxyContin. The drug originally was developed in Germany in 1916.

In response to abuse concerns, oxycodone manufacturers have made the
pill harder to grind and break apart. Many abusers snort or inject the
drug for a more intense high.

Doyle wears a bracelet that says "Ban oxy."

I don't know if that's the answer, but it's certainly time to start
having the debate.