Pam Bondi: Economic Rejuvenation Needs a Drug-Free Society

Attorney General Pam Bondi outlined Floridas approach to prescription-drug abuse to the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Thursday.

We must have a critical mass of educated, productive and healthy citizens, because a healthy and drug-free Florida is the cornerstone to any effort to spur economic rejuvenation and free enterprise, Bondi said.

Indeed, the very success of our society will be determined in large part by the productive nature and quality of the people that constitute our work force.

Thanks to the leadership of Floridas law enforcement and public health-care communities, the Welcome sign for pill mills to set up and operate in Florida has been permanently turned off.

She noted that the states Regional Drug Enforcement Strike Force has made 2,040 arrests (including 34 doctors), closed 27 clinics, and seized 445,690 pharmaceutical pills, 56 vehicles, 390 weapons and $4,648,621 since being created last year.

At one point in 2011 we had over 900 pain-management clinics registered within the state but today there are less than 580, and that number continues to decline.

Read the full testimony here.