STOP THE DOCTOR-DEALERS

Florida has become known for prescription drug abuse. According to the
Drug Enforcement Administration, of the 50 practitioners who
dispensed the most oxycodone in the country in 2008-09, 49 of them
were in Florida, making Florida a destination for drug traffickers and
addicts. Some Florida practitioners are prescribing and dispensing
lethal amounts of controlled substances without providing any real
medical care.

Most Florida doctors are dedicated professionals, but a few
disreputable medical professionals are profiting by prescribing and
dispensing addictive drugs. These physicians often have no ongoing
clinical relationship with patients and provide no general medical
care - their only undertaking is to prescribe and dispense these
dangerous controlled substances.

Unfortunately, regulating and tracking the problem alone will not
solve this epidemic. Florida attempted to shut down the pill mill
industry with the passage of legislation in 2009 and 2010 that
established strict pain clinic regulation and the prescription drug
monitoring program. While these measures are well intended, they will
simply not stop the problem. We must stop these drugs from being
dispensed at the source and prevent them from being circulated in our
neighborhoods.

Recent studies clearly demonstrate that states that have implemented a
PDMP have not had a decrease in drug-related deaths. In fact, all
states have experienced increases in death rates since 1999,
indicating that the creation of a PDMP does not significantly change
the amount of drug-related deaths.

New data presented sharply focuses on the problem of 'dispensing
practitioners.' Florida has more of these doctor-dealers compared to
the rest of the United States, and they are purchasing and dispensing
medically unbelievable amounts of these dangerous and addictive drugs.

The statistics are alarming. Nearly half of all practitioners in the
country who buy and dispense methadone are in Florida, and they
purchased more than 93 percent of all the methadone sold to
practitioners.

The supply of oxycodone purchased by practitioners is also alarming.
Practitioners - which in Florida can only be physicians - purchased
85 percent of the oxycodone sold and distributed to practitioners in
the entire country. Those physicians bought enough oxycodone to
dispense 100 times the amount per Florida resident than supplied by
practitioners in the rest of the country.

This data clearly indicates to me is that our state's prescription
drug abuse epidemic stems from a dispensing problem. And instead of
merely tracking the dispensing and sale of these controlled
substances, we need a front-end solution that cuts the supply off at
its source.

Working together and supporting a ban on the dispensing and direct
sale of controlled substances, state and local officials, law
enforcement and the medical community can cut to the heart of this
critical problem. Under the proposed dispensing ban, physicians will
still prescribe medically necessary controlled substances, but
patients will need to go to a pharmacy to get their pills. The
proposal will also provide for distributors to buy back medications
from doctors and authorize immediate action to prevent any
inappropriate or unlawful disposal of those drugs. An
across-theA-board ban on the dispensing and direct sale of dangerous
controlled substances is immediate action that can effectively stop
drug pushers disguised as doctors.

Now is the time to take decisive action to save the lives of the
estimated seven Floridians who die each day from prescription drug
abuse. Your support is needed to ban the direct dispensing of
controlled substances and prevent these additive medications and the
doctor-dealers who dispense them from destroying lives, families and
our communities.

John Legg, R-Port Richey, is speaker pro tempore of the Florida House.