POLITICIANS ASK GOV. RICK SCOTT TO REVERSE STAND ON PRESCRIPTION DRUG
MONITORING PROGRAM

Minutes after announcing the biggest raids so far against pill mills,
South Florida's top law enforcement leaders last week sent a message
to Gov. Rick Scott.

Standing together at a podium in Weston, several of them urged the new
governor to drop his opposition to the state's much-anticipated
prescription tracking system. They said the computer database would
become their main weapon against the illegal narcotics trade at
Florida's pain clinics.

"It's critical that we have that database," Broward Sheriff Al
Lamberti said. "Otherwise, Florida is going to remain a problem state
for pill mills. It is a huge step backward to rescind that [system].
We cannot arrest our way out of this problem."

Forty-two other states have approved the databases, with at least 34
in operation so far. Drug dealers and addicts know which states don't
have them, and that's a big reason they flood across the Southeast to
Florida's pill mills, said Mark Trouville, special agent in charge of
the South Florida office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration.

"I can't comment on the governor," Trouville said, but added: "In the
states that have a [system,] the problem is nowhere near as serious as
it is here."

Scott earlier this month had stunned law enforcement, legislators and
Floridians who have lost relatives to pain pill abuse when he proposed
eliminating the "prescription drug monitoring program," or PDMP.

"I don't think it's the state's responsibility," Scott said at a press
briefing on Feb. 14. "I don't think it's something the state ought to
be doing, tracking everybody's, every individual's drug
interactions."

The database was aimed at tracking prescriptions of drugs containing
controlled substances, such as painkillers. The idea is to help law
enforcement, doctors and pharmacists detect patients getting drugs
from multiple sources at once, to amass excessive quantities.

Florida's PDMP, approved by the Legislature in 2009, was supposed to
start on Dec. 1, but is delayed by a bid dispute. The Governor's
office did not respond to repeated requests for comment either about
eliminating the drug database, or about how he plans to combat
escalating prescription drug abuse in Florida. But previously, Scott
has said the database would be a government intrusion into people's
medical affairs, do little to stop pill mills and cost the state
$500,000 a year if private grants can't be found to support it.

Even before he was even sworn into office, Scott abolished the state
agency assigned to reduce substance abuse, established under former
Gov. Jeb Bush, and canned Florida's drug czar. Scott's actions
confounded some Floridians and drew sharp criticism from leaders
across the nation who see Florida as source state for prescription
drugs.

"The notion of cancelling Florida's PDMP is equal to firing
firefighters while your house is ablaze," U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a
Republican from Kentucky, wrote to Scott on Feb. 17. "It neither makes
sense nor addresses an urgent crisis."

Rogers said in his letter that "a giant sigh of relief swept across
the nation" when Florida's PDMP was signed into law.

"Thousands of unscrupulous drug dealers and addicted users have made
the trek to your state because of the ease of access to these powerful
and habit-forming drugs," wrote Rogers, whose state leads the nation
in the non-medical use of prescription drugs. "And after years of
prodding, your predecessor acknowledged the need for action."

National reaction

Leaders from across the nation have implored Florida's governor to
reverse his position on the PDMP.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson -- along with colleagues from New York, Rhode
Island and West Virginia -- wrote Scott to express "grave concerns"
about the proposed elimination of the monitoring program.

"Such a policy not only leaves Florida exposed to criminal elements in
the business of trafficking controlled substances, but also has
serious ramifications for the rest of the country battling abuse of
prescription drugs," the senators wrote in their Feb. 20 letter.

Kentucky is a prime example.

That state has a prescription drug monitoring program, and law
enforcement there recognized years ago that their residents travel to
Florida to avoid having their drug transactions tracked.

Many of the start-up costs for the databases, including Florida's,
were paid by federal grants. The DEA has told Congress its goal is to
facilitate the establishment or enhancement of state PDMPs.

Even the White House has taken notice of Scott's intentions.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy, recently requested a meeting with Scott. As of
Friday, a meeting has not been scheduled.

Kerlikowske was not available for an interview, but Office spokesman
Rafael Lemaitre said the nation's prescription drug epidemic
"stretches across borders and requires a collaborative response from
all of us."

"We owe it to the thousands of victims of prescription drug abuse in
Kentucky, Florida, and throughout the nation to work together to
implement state initiatives like Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs
that we know work to reduce this public health threat," he said.

Scott's decision has also drawn the disappointment and ire of some
parents, relatives and friends of prescription drug victims. At a
protest last week in front of a pill mill, the main message was to
urge Scott not to kill the database.

Michelle Moore, who picketed for the first time at Monday's rally by
the grassroots group Stop The Organized Pill Pushers Now, said she is
outraged at how easily her adult son became addicted at pill mills.
"Whatever the governor's reasons and justifications are for trying to
kill it, they don't make sense to the parents of a drug addict," Moore
said. "We need to do everything -- everything -- we can to stop these
pill mills."

Database foes

At a House Health and Human Services Committee workshop Thursday,
chair Rep. Robert Schenck, R-Spring Hill, clearly opposed the
database. Others on the committee questioned whether illicit clinics
and unscrupulous doctors would report to a database honestly and why
Florida even allows some doctors to dispense drugs directly rather
than sending patients to a pharmacy.

Although Schenck voted for the database in 2009, he said he heard
nothing in Thursday's workshop to convince him of its likely
effectiveness: "It forfeits people's privacy for a reason that's not
solving a bigger problem. There's no conclusive proof that [databases]
either help or exacerbate the problem."

After the workshop, Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven, said he remains
open to the idea of a database but has some concerns. "I've got
privacy concerns about this data somehow being leaked out," he said.
"We would have data being reported on law-abiding citizens."

House Speaker Dean Cannon, one of only 13 legislators who voted
against the database when it was approved in 2009, said last week that
he does not view monitoring every pain pill prescription as an
efficient weapon against pill mills. He did not offer an alternative
method.

Given the lack of alternatives, Bruce Grant, who headed Florida's
Office of Drug Control until Scott abolished it, said the fact that
Florida has such a huge prescription drug problem is "a testament to
the fact we didn't have anything in place."

"If you've got a better idea than the PDMP, let's hear it," Grant
said. "It's not perfect, certainly, but at least it's a start at
cutting back on people dying. How could you be against that?"