Manatee County Commission Looking to Enact Ordinances to Restrict “Pill Mills”

On Tuesday during an open meeting of the Manatee County Commission,
County Commissioner’s heard from citizens outraged over the operation of the so
called “Pill Mills” in Manatee County. One citizen spoke about her son’s
addiction to prescription pills and his eventual death, which was ruled a
suicide by the Medical Examiner’s Office. County Commissioner’s discussed
enacting local ordinances to further restrict the dispensing of prescription
pills, restricting the operations of local pharmacies, limiting the hours these
pills could be dispensed and restricting doctor’s from dispensing and
prescribing pain medications, along with a host of other legal jargon for
inspections and regulation on the county level.

Good idea?

Think again. There are already numerous state and federal laws on the books
regarding regulation, restrictions and operations of medical clinics and
pharmacies. The Prescription Drug Database was passed by Florida State legislation and is in operation. The passing of a county ordinance regarding pill mills is a knee jerk reaction and is nothing more than one of those ordinances that give citizens a false sense of security and safety.

Who would enforce such a county ordinance? Who will conduct these inspections? Is this ordinance Constitutional and in accordance with state and federal laws? How much will this cost taxpayers? Too often these ordinances are passed so that
politicians can say they did their part with no thought given to the above
questions. As citizens we want to feel safe and protected but more often than
not we give away our rights and freedoms under false pretense.

This past year the Florida State Legislation ruled that all of the city and county ordinances enacted regarding local gun ordinances were in violation of the Constitution of the United States and passed a law with fines up to $5,000 for those cities and counties who failed to comply. This was a huge step in recognizing and restoring citizen’s rights.

The real issue here is the disease called addiction. There are many people who take prescription pain medication who do not abuse their medications. These pain pills and patches are timed released medications and if taken properly release a dose of medication over a period of time to help reduce pain. People abuse these
medications by crushing them up, snorting the powder or by cooking it up and
injecting it, eating the pain patches or by smoking the pills in the same manner
as those who smoke Crystal Meth and Crack. Alcohol is very much the same, if
consumed in moderation it doesn’t cause a problem, when consumed in excess it
becomes a problem. 

The abuse of prescription pain medications has become such an epidemic because of their popularity and because they are legally obtained and health insurance will pay a large portion of the costs. They can then be resold on the streets at a 1000% mark-up generating a steady income for the dealer.

The war on drugs has not been effective and costs billions of dollars each year with no signs of the flow of drugs into the United States having been slowed down. We have many laws governing narcotics. The DEA has been investigating prescription fraud and abuse for many years and even with all the laws and investigative methods they have had limited success. The current laws and pending legislation are making it more difficult for the law abiding citizen who needs these types of medications to obtain it.

We need to look at some better alternatives other than further restricting our rights and freedoms by passing all these laws we can’t enforce. The amount of money spent each year on drug enforcement might be better used to treat addiction and educate the public.