Gov. Rick Scott Testifies on Prescription Drug Abuse Before Congressional Panel

Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear spoke Thursday before the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on the rampant abuse of prescription drugs in both states.

Kentucky's elected and law enforcement officials have long complained of citizens travelling to Florida to obtain powerful prescription painkillers like oxycodone and taking them back to Kentucky. Gov. Beshear said deaths from drug overdoses -- the majority of which in Kentucky now involve prescription drugs -- outnumber those from automobile accidents. Prescription drug addiction has also plagued Florida residents, with seven deaths per day resulting from overdoses.

Gov. Scott, who first backed off efforts to implement Florida's prescription drug monitoring program over privacy concerns, now embraces the database, which came online last week. He also pointed to his announcement of a law enforcement strike force to target the problem, and bills in the state House and Senate regulating pain clinics and doctors, as evidence of his committment to tackle the issue.

"We know who the manufacturers are, we know who the distributors are, we know who the doctors are, so we ought to be able to stop them. This is a legal distribution system that's doing it the wrong way," Scott said.

U.S. Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., praised Scott for his decision to reject Purdue Pharma's offer to fund Florida's prescription drug database for two years for $1 million. Purdue Pharma is the maker of OxyContin, the powerful painkiller responsible for much of the addiction and overdose deaths resulting from prescription drug abuse.

"I think that the Purdue Pharma -- your decision was a good one," Mack told Scott.

U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, asked the governors what could be done at the federal level to combat the problem. Scott, normally adverse to government interference in the private sector, said regulations could be the answer.

"There ought to be a restriction on how these drugs can be used and what they can be prescribed for," Scott said.