THE PAIN OF TRYING TO ENFORCE THE LAW

The office manager for a pain management medical clinic in Bonita
Springs says Lee County deputies are harassing customers and the business.

Public records show deputies have been called to the shopping center
where the clinic is attended more than 550 times in the past 10 months
- -- nearly 10 times as often as they were alerted for the prior four
years.

The manager is upset deputies ask patients outside questions such
as,"What are you doing here?"

Other tenants at Sunshine Professional Center on Bonita Beach Road are
upset that their customers ask questions such as "What are the cops
doing here?"

The deputies are also making drug-related arrests --18 of them since
Florida Medical Solutions came in December -- even though
prescriptions rather than pills are dispensed there.

At least one employee of a medical office in the same complex reports
seeing loiterers with hundreds of dollars in cash leaning on patients'
cars. "That's not safe for anyone," she says.

The situation is shaping up as what state officials backing preventive
legislation are trying to prevent when pain clinics open. Patients
other than those with legitimate medical conditions can be attracted
to clinics offering easy prescriptions -- though the record shows
there are no reports of Florida Medical Solutions being accused of any
crimes.

The officers and neighbors can comment only on what they see taking
place outside.

What are the deputies doing there?

They appear to be enforcing the law and safeguarding the public health
and welfare as best they can.