Republicans in the Legislature squared off Thursday over the states strategy to fight pill mills and illegal use of prescription drugs.
The House Health and Human Services Committee passed two measures through committee, one preventing doctors from dispensing controlled substances directly to patients and the other abolishing the state Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP).
Up until this point, there has been no front end solution to the significant drug abuse problem that our state faces, said Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, chairman of the committee. Statistics show that practitioners are dispensing medically unbelievable amounts of controlled substances, making Florida a haven for addicts and dealers alike to purchase controlled substances from these doctor-dealers.
Essentially, these individuals are operating under the pretense of being legitimate medical professionals, when in reality their only goal is to make a profit through the direct sale of dangerous narcotics, added Schenck. The only feasible solution to this problem is to cut the supply of these drugs off at its source the dispensing physicians.
The current bureaucratic regulatory scheme has failed to address the problem and the PDMP will only serve to track the symptoms, not stop the next drug-related overdose, continued Schenck. I am confident that, by adopting an across-the-board dispensing ban on controlled substances by physicians, we will effectively cut to the heart of this problem and eliminate the prescription-drug abuse problem that has overwhelmed our state.
Schencks support of the bills and his comments mirrored the will of the House leadership. On Monday, Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, told the media he would make the bills a high priority.
Florida has become a destination state for prescription drugs, said Cannon, who argued that the solution to this problem is upstream, meaning the legislation that would ban selling controlled prescriptions out of physicians offices.
We need to cut this problem off at the head added Cannon, who said the bill targeted drug dealers masquerading as doctors.
On Thursday, House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, applauded the legislation which will now head to the House floor.
Over seven people die each day in Florida from prescription-drug-related deaths, said Lopez-Cantera. We cannot afford to merely keep an eye on this egregious problem. These proposed committee bills (PCBs) rightly take the focus off simply monitoring the symptoms of the growing problem of prescription-drug-related deaths with another big government program and stop the problem at the source.
The dispensing ban creates a mechanism to stop drug dealers cloaked as doctors, added Lopez-Cantera. These PCBs allow us to defend the credibility of the medical profession and protect the appropriate uses of prescription drugs.
But while the legislation looks certain to pass the House, their fate in the Senate is less clear, with Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, not as gung-ho as Cannon in shutting down the state PDMP.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has been critical of the legislation emerging in the House and expressed disappointment that the measures passed the committee on Thursday.
I am extremely disappointed that members of my own party voted for legislation that will allow felons to once again own pain clinics, that deregulates pill mills and removes the requirement that pain clinics be licensed and inspected, said Fasano. While I understand that it is early in the process, I am saddened that no member of my party had the courage to stand up and vote against these two bad bills.
Thirty-four other states have successful Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs in place,added Fasano. That is why people come here for their drugs. With this measure moving forward, that means that Florida could once again become a destination state for dangerous narcotics.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
