Posted on 01/19/2011 7:22:48 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
Calling Florida "the drug supplier for the rest of the country," former state Sen. Dave Aronberg is leading Attorney General Pam Bondi's fight against "pill mills."
Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat, was selected by Bondi, a Republican, based on his long-running battle against the abuse of prescription drugs.
(Excerpt) Read more at sunshinestatenews.com ...
So she is going to separate all the little old retired people in Florida from their pain medication. The term stepped in it comes to mind.
No, she is going to make it much more difficult for addicts from out of state to drive down here to get their fix. :)
Florida news...
Doggone right. They never even told us she was running. She was more of a secret than Allen West. That girl is *PHAT*! (PHAT stands for Pretty Hot And Tempting)
No, I know a glory hound when I see one, and I was pointing out the attack that will be launched against it. I am sure she will have a very good power point presentation about the subject one day and then move on to the next power point presentation. Much easier than cracking down illegals.
there are pill mills. (questionable pharmacies)
but how do you seperate the legitimate customer from the illigitimate abuser?
Pain pills are to make the “in pain” feel normal. Contrast with the normal feeling “too good”.
(s) of courst this could be a matter for the obamacare death pannels. If you quality of life is so bad without expensive and costly to the collective then perhaps a duty to die exists...(/s)
I’m so tired of hearing people complain about “pill mills”.
Yes we have bad abuse. I’ve met abusers. But even more I meet people in lots of pain, who can’t afford the expensive trip to pain specialists.
What people forget is in FL we have lots of disabled people (they can’t take the cold winters) who live in pain. People who have chronic, severe pain can’t afford the $200 or so bucks it takes to walk into the office of the “approved” pain specialists.
Many folks have never walked into these offices. You will see a bunch of people hunched over, in chairs and with canes and walkers, with applicances and bandages and dogs and every what not. Their faces are marked. I talked to one the other day who said she had to “school her face” because everyone thought she was angry all the time, when she was just in pain.
well she was a reporter/commentator
I got an idea! How about we make possession of these drugs ILLEGAL! And we can authorize the cops to search your house under the flimsiest of excuses and take your home if we find out you were selling pills there!
What a great idea! It’s bound to work!
Yes, your certainly have the Debbie Downer act perfected. All based on zip, since I doubt you’ve got any real world experience or knowledge about Pam. :)
‘salright, won’t effect my thumbs up to her efforts.
It is not Doctors giving pills to old folks...it is Doctors who run a side business giving pills to anyone who pays cash for an visit. They know who they are..and so do all the addicts and peddlers.
We had a young member of our extended family who used a Pediatrician in Ft. Lauderdale...his early hours practice was just for drug users...
The glorious War on Drugs rolls on, and a 'Drug-Free America' utopia gets closer and closer. Your wife is just collateral damage, doncha know ...
“It is not Doctors giving pills to old folks...it is Doctors who run a side business giving pills to anyone who pays cash for an visit”
What is needed is a good prescription drug monitoring system to identify doctor shoppers and doctors that ignore patients that are doctor shopping. The second important measure is diligent urine drug testing to identify patients that are using illegal drugs or other narcotics. Many patients get narcotics from other “friends” in relatively small amounts. The third measure is running court checks on patients to determine if they have evidence of anti-social behavior or prescription fraud.
A person paying cash will raise suspicion (as do people on Medicaid), but it is not per se a contraindication to the use of narcotics for chronic pain. In many cases, cash paying patients are individuals that work but do not have insurance but nonetheless, they still have legitimate indications for narcotic medications. In many cases, these people do not have good credit and accepting other forms of payment results in non-payment.
With 0bamacare looming on the horizon, we will want to preserve our ability to use cash for medical treatment. Some people will want to have truly confidential medical evaluations and records that cannot be tracked by Big Brother.
So if I’m a pain patient I need to have the state checking me out to see if I am anti-social?
And I have had urine tests that were 100% wrong. It’s very upsetting to be told you are using a med when you’ve never even heard of it.
It’s sort of like guns. The criminals get them anyway and the good folks just suffer more. And believe me, having a pain prescription is like putting a target on your back - from both crooks AND the law.
“So if I’m a pain patient I need to have the state checking me out to see if I am anti-social?
No. Anyone can check public criminal records on the internet in most states. Doctors that prescribe narcotics do this routinely to check if their patients have been convicted of prescription fraud or violent activity.
“And I have had urine tests that were 100% wrong. It’s very upsetting to be told you are using a med when you’ve never even heard of it.”
The accuracy of the urine test depends on the substance tested and the type of test used. It is true that the rapid qualitative screen is not 100% accurate, so positive or other suspicious results need to be confirmed with mass spectroscopy. Some substances such as psuedephdrine for example, can cross react with amphetamines. If however, a patient tests positive on the mass spec for cocaine, that patient is to a reasonable degree of medical certainly deemed to have consumed cocaine even if the patient refutes the claim. The accuracy of the mass spec is much more accurate than a person’s testimony. If it were not, there would be no point of urine drug testing and no one would ever lie about their drug use. I suppose one could argue that samples could be mixed up as with any other test, but the chance of this happening is much lower than a person lying about their drug use.
With urine drug testing, devil is in the details and your doctor needs to know the details.
Florida has an enormous problem with pill mills. Drive up to any major intersection in Tampa, and you’ll see “Pain Management” signs (handmade/painted) all over the place. People can walk into one of these places, claim to have some debilitating condition, and walk out with a script for Oxy, etc.
My brother was a pill addict, and this was how he got his fix, just hopscotching from one to another. It has to stop.
Ok and how would address that problem?
I feel badly for your brother but here is where the problem gets worse: looking to Big Government Nannies who must regulate what others choose to put in their bodies. I'm not saying thats what you are proposing but many seem to go down that horrible path.
Trying to protect those who make chronic bad decisions by depriving liberties from those who do not make bad choices is just wrong.
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