Pubdate: Tue, 28 Jul 2009
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2009 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Ihosvani Rodriguez, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

DANIA BEACH COULD BECOME FIRST CITY IN BROWARD TO PASS LAW 
RESTRICTING PAIN CLINICS

Proposed Law Would Ban New Clinics From Dispensing Pills, Limit Locations

DANIA BEACH - Anyone thinking about starting up a pain clinic in the
city will want to look elsewhere if it passes a law today making it
the first Broward municipality to clamp down on the businesses.

The proposed measure, to be voted on today, is aimed at curtailing the
proliferation of pain clinics in the county, which has been widely
labeled as the nation's "pain mill capital" because of their abundance.

Supporters of pain clinics say they provide a necessary medical
service; critics charge that most cater primarily to drug abusers and
those who would resell the drugs on the street for huge profits.

Dania Beach officials say their proposed law is primarily meant to
discourage any future clinics from setting up shop.

"What we are trying to do is to tell them to not come here, they are
not welcome," said Dania Beach Mayor Anne Castro. "I think everyone is
going to start adopting these laws soon. We want to move quickly
before we become one of the last cities to do so. We are going through
a renaissance in Dania Beach and we don't want to suddenly become the
city to come to buy drugs."

Under the proposal, future clinics will not be allowed to open in
areas marked for redevelopment, which includes the touristy and
antique shopping areas along U.S. 1. They will also not be allowed to
dispense medications on-site, the main service for most pain clinics.

Dania Beach issued a moratorium on such clinics in April, and the
proposed measure already passed unanimously on its initial
consideration. It will take effect immediately, if approved.

At least 90 clinics in Broward and Palm Beach counties have opened
since January 2008, a SunSentinel analysis found.

Experts have many theories of why Florida has become such a hot spot
for pain clinics. Chief among them is the state's slow pace in
adopting measures to control them. Residents from other states with
stricter controls, especially in the Appalachian area, have flocked to
Florida to buy pills here.

Police officials in Dania Beach and throughout Florida say clinics are
contributing to the alarming rates of deaths due to painkiller overdoses.

Fatal overdoses involving oxycodone, the main component in such
brand-name pain killers as OxyContin, Roxicet and Percocet, increased
20 per cent from 2007 to 2008 in Broward and Palm Beach counties,
state authorities reported recently. Together, the two counties logged
a total of 221 oxycodone-related overdose deaths last year.

Legislation signed by Gov. Charlie Crist last month is aimed at
regulating pain clinics and establishing a statewide prescription
monitoring program. But the program won't be running for at least a
couple of years.

In Coconut Creek, officials in September will evaluate a moratorium on
the clinics they imposed earlier this year. Oakland Park, which has 18
pain clinics within a two-mile radius, had considered a moratorium in
March but decided it was too difficult to determine the difference
between a pain clinic and a medical office.

Dania Beach currently has two clinics, located a block apart on
Griffin Road, and a third is in the process of trying to obtain a
business license to open on U.S.1. They will not be bound by the
proposed restrictions, said City Attorney Tom Ansbro.

A woman who identified herself only as the manager at Pain Relief
Centers of South Florida declined to comment. The manager at the other
clinic on Griffin Road, All Pain Management, could not be reached
despite messages left with a receptionist at the clinic, and with a
consultant.

The nearby pain clinics have posed a problem for the Medical and
Chiropractic Center, located just a few doors down from the All Pain
Management clinic in the same shopping center.

Although that center advertises pain relief, manager Monica Kunev said
it does not dispense pills.

"We get people in here all the time asking for drugs," said Kunev.
"We're not that type of place."
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