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." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake