Pubdate: Thu, 05 May 2005
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2005 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact: http://www.2theadvocate.com/help/letter2editor.shtml
Website: http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Jessica Fender
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

PANEL TARGETS 'PILL MILLS'

A House committee Wednesday OK'd a first swat at so-called "pill
mills" that recklessly prescribe painkillers that end up on the streets.

House Bill 544 would allow law enforcement officers to arrest doctors
and health-care professionals who do not follow medical standards for
prescribing superaddictive pills, such as oxycodone and methadone.

It also would become illegal to operate a business with the sole
purpose of selling prescriptions and would fine or imprison those who
dispense the medications through fraud or forgery.

Fly-by-night pain treatment centers are cropping up across Louisiana
to make big money selling prescriptions to people who are either
addicted to painkillers or who sell them on the street, said
co-authors Reps. Pete Schneider, R-Slidell, and Mike Strain,
R-Covington.

"They're using their authority to create death in our parishes,"
Schneider said.

A coroner from St. Tammany Parish told committee members that the
number of drug-related deaths in his area increased from 2003 to 2004.

"It's a mounting and escalating social problem," Peter Galvan
said.

The sponsors pointed to a case earlier this year where police officers
closed down a center in Slidell, which opened three days a week,
served hundreds of patients each day and saw clients for an average of
seven seconds per visit.

They said it was a cash-only operation where the prescription pads
were pre-signed.

HB544 is one of several proposed laws regulating pain management
clinics that are winding through the Legislature.

Two measures would require the centers, which help patients deal with
chronic pain, to be licensed through the state Department of Health
and Hospitals. Another lays out restrictions on how the clinics can
legally operate.

This type of regulation could be good for legitimate centers,
according to Beth Broadway, administrator of the Pain Treatment Center
of Baton Rouge, one of a handful of clinics in the city a search of
the phonebook revealed.

"I think they're going to have to make a true designation," Broadway
said.

She agrees with HB544 as long as the Drug Enforcement Administration
"doesn't come in and say 'You issued 46 pills of oxycodone last month,
you're under investigation.' "

She said her center houses doctors who specialize in pain management
and anesthesiology.

"At unethical centers, they may have a urologist practicing pain
management."

State regulatory boards already require doctors to follow medical
standards, such as making sure an ailment warrants a prescribed
medication and spending a certain length of time with patients, she
said. But catching the bad apples is tough. "By the time the board
hears about them, they're gone," she said.

At Comprehensive Pain Management, a Baton Rouge center, manager
Stephanie Gay said doctors take a number of measures to make sure
patients aren't abusing their prescriptions.

They're tested to make sure the drugs are in their systems, they sign
contracts vowing not to sell or abuse the pills, and she doesn't
hesitate to call federal authorities if she suspects something awry,
she said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin