Legitimate Florida Patients Hit Hard By Battle Against Prescription Pill Abuse

Legitimate Florida Patients Hit Hard By Battle Against Prescription Pill Abuse

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration is cracking down on distributors and manufacturers of prescription pills in a no nonsense manner. Substance licenses are revoked if suppliers are caught selling pills to pharmacies intending to sell them to those holding illegitimate prescriptions. The USDEA is closely monitoring production and distribution patterns to focus in on suspect behavior.Last October, the Florida legislature passed a new law that restricted pain clinics from dispensing over a three-day supply of narcotics to patients who paid in cash. There are over 850 pain clinics registered in Florida. Although many of them are seeking new patients through flashy advertisements that promise all kinds of pain can be treated, many pain clinics stopped sales completely in response to the new law and sent their patients to pharmacies. Oxycodone, used to treat pain, is one of the most popular and widely used prescription drugs. The street favorite, known as "Oxy," is at the very center of the government's battle against pain pill abuse. As a result, legitimate patients who are in real pain are suffering the consequences of the government crackdown. Oxycodone has become harder to locate and more expensive to purchase. Patients in pain have had to switch to different, less effective, medications that are easier to get. One result of the government crackdown on the prescription pill problem is that pill mills have been shut down. Also, drug wholesalers have been affected in that they can now only receive a limited supply of certain pills like oxycodone. They are not permitted to receive more the remainder of the month once their supplies are gone. As a result, pharmacists are forced to reject business and make the judgment call as to who is a legitimate pain patient as opposed to a drug addict, in order to decide who they should make a sale to. Maj. Donna Lusczynski of the sheriff's special investigations division in Hillsborough County, Florida, reports that there are smaller groups of people that gather in pain clinic parking lots. "It's not like the barbeque out back" like it used to be. According to Luscynski, oxycodone pills that were once $8 to $10 when bought on the street have since increased to $10 to $15 because of its decreased availability. In a nutshell, the recent legislation has changed the very nature of the prescription pill business.Another side effect of the increased price of oxycodone is a higher rate of violent crime. In Florida, there were over 1,800 pharmacy robberies over the last three years, mostly related to individuals attempting to secure narcotic painkillers. Seven people in Florida die each day from overdosing on prescription pills. Officials state that the true test of whether the government crackdown on prescription pill abuse has been effective will be lower deaths from overdose. We do not yet have statistics on this point.Prescription pill abuse in Florida has resulted in numerous problems. The people who legitimately need pain killers are arguably the ones suffering the most as an unfortunate side effect of the war against prescription pill abuse.

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