PILL MILL 'STRIKE FORCE' MORE LIKE POLITICAL PAINKILLER

Any year would produce thousands of candidates for Most Overhyped
Political Press Release. More than four months remain in 2011, but a
clear favorite in Florida will be one that came out last Monday:
"Governor Scott: Strike Force Winning Pill Mill War."

The release accompanied a media event in Miami that featured the
governor, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald
Bailey and others dragooned into appearing. The intent was to give
credit for Florida's fight against prescription-drug trafficking to
those who came late, and in some cases reluctantly, to the fight.

Five months ago, Gov. Scott was in a tough spot on this issue. He had
come out early and inexplicably against a database, which the
Legislature approved last year in a strong bipartisan vote, to track
purchases of drugs like oxycodone. The database is designed to prevent
people from obtaining multiple prescriptions of painkillers that are
claiming and destroying lives from South Florida to Ohio. More pills
come from South Florida than the rest of the country combined.

So the governor announced a "strike force" to target pain clinics.
Nothing sounds more action-oriented than a "strike force." It conjures
up images of cops beating down doors and prosecutors winning
convictions.

In fact, cops and prosecutors in South Florida - especially in Palm
Beach County - are all over this scourge. But they aren't members of
any "strike force." They work for the sheriff's and state attorney's
offices, and they were tracking pill-pushing reprobates long before
this year. The touted "strike force" mostly offers coordinating and
prioritizing, along with a bit of money.

The Department of Law Enforcement divides the state into seven
regions. A sheriff and police chief are chairman of each region for
the "strike force." In Region 7, which runs from Palm Beach County to
the Keys, the co-chairmen are Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw
and John Brooks, chief in the Broward County city of Sunrise.

Sheriff Bradshaw said the "strike force" brought Region 7 between
$800,000 and $900,000, most of that to pay local agencies for overtime
that results from labor-intensive pill investigations. "It's helpful,"
Sheriff Bradshaw said of the money, "but, ultimately, it would take
millions, just for investigations."

Fortunately, local agencies didn't wait for Tallahassee. Sheriff
Bradshaw and State Attorney Michael McAuliffe targeted pill dealers 18
months ago. Gov. Scott's Monday press release proclaimed the seizure
of roughly 250,000 pills and nearly $1.7 million in cash and assets
statewide since creation of the "strike force." In February, Sheriff
Bradshaw, Mr. McAuliffe and officials from the Drug Enforcement
Administration announced the results of Operation Pill Nation. That
state-federal investigation alone led to the seizure of $3 million in
assets. Last week, local and federal officers seized more than 6,000
pills in a sting centered on activity near the VA hospital in Riviera
Beach.

An FDLE spokeswoman said Operation Pill Nation happened before the
"strike force," and the "strike force" doesn't count investigations
with federal agencies. Given the excellent cooperation between the
locals and the feds, that math makes as much sense as calculating
Florida tourism without including foreign visitors. Of course, there's
a script to worry about. The press release referred only to "Florida
law enforcement."

Attorney General Pam Bondi me-tooed the governor in praising the
"strike force." Her release also implied that the "strike force" got
help from a new law she supported. That law didn't take effect until
July 1.

A day later, Ms. Bondi said Gov. Scott and the Florida Cabinet, of
which she is a member, would recognize Aug. 27 as "Prescription Drug
Take-Back Day." Floridians can return unused drugs of any kind. Bring
in those expired Xanax. Great. If they can recover 1 million
painkillers, they will match what Sheriff Bradshaw already has
recovered on his own.

Obviously, any extra help against these profiteering predators will
help. The Department of Health is working to suspend the licenses of
suspected doctors more quickly. The problem is statewide, and
prosecutors from Ms. Bondi's office are helping in some counties. But
focusing on this "strike force" to boost images in Tallahassee insults
all those who have been doing the real work of identifying targets,
making undercover buys and building cases.

Florida will win this prescription pill fight because the state must
win it. The people who will win it, however, weren't at Monday's press
conference. As they have been for some time, they were working.