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Kitchen Police (KP military) .. civilian style ?..item 3..Gov. Rick Scott signs pill mill bill into law (June 03, 2011) ?.
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?HE IS DEFENSELESS, ?Pill Mill Crackdown..There are more pain clinics in Broward County then there are McDonald?s in Broward County (February 2011) ?White Flag Syndrome
The repeal also drew the ire of Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti, who has to fight the pill mills that pop up almost every day.
?When I was appointed in 2007, there were four pain clinics; now there are 130,? Lamberti said. ?There are more pain clinics than McDonald?s.?
?..item 1)??CBS miami.com??DEA Raids Suspected Pill Mills Across South Florida
February 23, 2011 11:54 PM
miami.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/dea-raids-suspected-pill-mi?
MIAMI (CBS4) ? Federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration joined with local and state law enforcement officers for a massive tri-county sweep of suspected ?pill mills?.
The raids resulted in the closures of several pain clinics, the seizure of millions in cash and the arrests of nearly two dozen people ? including doctors, clinic owners and employees.
?When people come to Florida to buy these prescription painkillers, when there?s no medical necessity, the results are the same ? death,? said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Wilfredo Ferrer.
One of the first suspected pill mills targeted in the crackdown was the Commercial Medical Group on Commercial Boulevard in Oakland Park.
Nearby business owner Diane Moore watched the raid.
?I looked out and there were no sirens, they just swarmed in, quite the sight,? said Moore.
People who live and work near the suspected pill mills are grateful for the busts.
?I?m happy about it,? said neighbor Fred Keebler. ?It means whenever I drive by here at night I don?t see 100 people standing outside a building with no name on it.?
Federal agents said Commercial Medical is one of 7 clinics owned in Broward and Miami-Dade by Vincent Colangelo, of Davie. Investigators said Colangelo?s businesses dispensed 660,000 oxycodone pills in a two-year period. Investigators also said Colangelo?s operation earned him 0,000 per day.
By day?s end, federal agents brought in dozens of high-priced and vintage cars to the DEA offices in Weston, many owned by Colangelo. The cars ranged from a 1970 Mustang to a Lamborghini. There was also a Mercedes McLaren, a Rolls-Royce and a Dodge Viper.
Colangelo is locked up in the Broward County Jail on federal charges.
A pill mill is a doctor, clinic or pharmacy which prescribes or dispenses powerful prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.
Broward County has seen a meteoric rise in the number of pill mills in the county; they have more than doubled from 2008 to 2009.
Pill mill clinics come in ?all shapes and sizes,? but investigators say more and more are being disguised as independent pain-management centers. Many of these operations don?t require a physical exam or x-ray, customers just pick up their prescription at ?their? pharmacy.
The operation was called ?Operation Pill Nation? and was meant to shut down the busiest clinics that give out millions of narcotics.
One of the physicians arrested Wednesday was Dr. Zvi Perper, the son of Broward Medical Examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper. When asked about the allegations, Zvi Perper called them, ?Untrue.?
The DEA says this is only the beginning of their efforts to dismantle a deadly business that kills seven people a day in Florida. They say the pill mill problem is so rampant in South Florida that other states have dubbed I-95 the Oxy Express.
According to DEA spokesman David Melenkevitz, there are approximately 300 to 400 law enforcement personnel involved in this operation and they expect more arrests and more clinics to be closed in the near future.
But that battle may become tougher under a new plan from the Governor?s office.
Earlier this month Governor Rick Scott said he wants to repeal the state?s yet-to-be-implemented prescription drug tracking law and computer data base which was designed to crack down on ?pill mills.?
Scott spokesman Brian Hughes said that the electronic monitoring delayed by contract challenges, may not be as effective as advocates claim. The governor also was worried it might infringe on patients? privacy, he said.
The proposed repeal, though, drew sharp opposition from the Florida Academy of Pain Medicine. The doctors? group issued a statement saying such a system would be ?the single most effective weapon in the battle to shut down Florida?s so-called pill mills.?
The repeal also drew the ire of Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti, who has to fight the pill mills that pop up almost every day.
?When I was appointed in 2007, there were four pain clinics; now there are 130,? Lamberti said. ?There are more pain clinics than McDonald?s.?
The issue is so important to Lamberti that he helped raise money to get the prescription drug monitoring program implemented. He said it is a necessity.
?That?s why these drug traffickers come here,? Lamberti told CBS 4?s Carey Codd. ?They know we don?t have it. We need to finally join the rest of the country.
?Hopefully this operation will inform not only (Scott) but everybody in Tallahassee all the more the reason why we need that.?
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?..item 2)?..SunSentinel.com?..Al Lamberti: World is watching to see if Florida acts against pill mills
World watches to see if Florida acts against pill mills
April 04, 2011
articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-04-04/news/fl-lamberti-dru?
The war on drugs continues, but the battlefield has changed.
Instead of a dilapidated crack house in an impoverished neighborhood, the battle zone is a sterile pain clinic on a major city street. The drug of choice is not a leafy plant or some powder cooked up in a makeshift lab. It?s a perfect little pill manufactured under the watchful eye of the FDA by respected pharmaceutical firms. Sadly, all the cocaine, crack, meth, and heroin combined don?t kill as many people as these perfect little pills.
On average, seven people a day are killed by prescription drug abuse in Florida. If there was a serial killer on the loose who was claiming seven lives daily, there would be public outrage and an all-out effort to stop the murders, but I hardly hear a peep. The only cries come from the families of sons and daughters and brothers and sisters who are stoned to death by prescription drugs.
The famous ones make headlines. Anna Nicole Smith here in Broward County and others elsewhere, like Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, John Belushi, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and on and on.
Prescription drugs kill the rich and famous and the poor and unknown, male and female, black and white. Most of the victims are not born into a world of drug abuse; they stumble into it thinking that perfect little pills dispensed by people in lab coats make for a buzz that?s safer and more legal than the ones induced by the junkies? junk. They are, of course, dead wrong.
When I became Sheriff of Broward County three and a half years ago, there were four pain clinics operating in Broward County . Today we have around 130. It?s hard to keep track because they open and close in different locations all the time. Alternative weekly newspapers are a good gauge of pill mill proliferation based on how many pages of ads they run. "Walk-ins welcome!" and "pharmacy on-site" in big bold type let us know that addicts have someplace to go. We have more pill mills in Broward County than we have McDonalds. Pain clinics outnumber Starbucks. Broward County is ground zero.
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?..item 3)??MiamiHerald.com?.Gov. Rick Scott signs pill mill bill into law
Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation into law to crack down on pill mills in Florida.
Posted on Friday, 06.03.11
BY JANET ZINK AND JUSTIN GEORGE
HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREU
www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/03/2249936/scott-signs-pill-m?
TALLAHASSEE ? After initially fighting one of its key provisions, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill Friday aimed at cracking down on clinics that frivolously dispense pain pills, feeding a nationwide prescription drug abuse epidemic.
"Florida will shed its title as the Oxy Express," Scott said at a bill signing ceremony in Tampa.
The signing ended what had been a hard-fought political battle over how to stop an epidemic that kills an estimated seven Floridians daily.
Attorney General Pam Bondi made tackling prescription drug abuse her top priority, lobbying legislators for more tools to pursue pill mill operators.
But senators and representatives began the legislative session this with vastly different ideas on how to corral the problem.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos were staunch advocates of a prescription drug monitoring database.
Scott and House leaders wanted to eliminate it, raising questions about its effectiveness and privacy.
Scott launched his own law enforcement "strike force" to tackle the problem, and Rep. Robert Schecnk, R-Spring Hill, pushed a bill targeting doctors and drug distributors.
The final product includes Bondi?s priorities, as well as elements of the House bill and Fasano?s database.
"The governor has made a huge turnaround," Fasano said. "The governor today signed a bill today that not only preserves the prescription drug monitoring database. It makes it better."
The bill tightens reporting requirements to the database from 15 days to seven days, a change critics said the program needed to make it more effective.
The measure also increases penalties for overprescribing Oxycodone and other narcotics, tracks wholesale distribution of some controlled substances, and provides million to support law enforcement efforts and state prosecutors.
It also bans most doctors who prescribe narcotics from dispensing them, requiring prescriptions to be filled at certain types of pharmacies.
Scott has been under pressure from elected officials throughout the country to do something about the proliferation of so-called "pill mills" in Florida that attract people from other states seeking easy access to highly addictive, powerful painkillers.
"The toll our nation?s prescription drug abuse epidemic has taken in communities nationwide is devastating and Florida is ground zero," said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy after Scott signed the bill.
While testifying before a congressional committee with Kentucky Gov. Steve Bershear in April, Scott pledged to address the problem and give up his push to kill Florida?s prescription drug monitoring database, a top priority for Kerlikowske?s nationwide prescription drug battle.
Bershear applauded Scott and the Florida legislature on Friday.
"The signing of this bill will undoubtedly save lives ? not just in Florida, but in points north, including my home state of Kentucky," he said. "This comprehensive bill is another good step in our cooperative efforts to protect our families from the scourge of prescription drug abuse. I thank Gov. Scott for signing this important bill."
On Friday, Scott drew maximum attention to his signing of a popular law that won unanimous support in both the House and Senate with ceremonies in Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando.
Broward County has become the nation?s pill-mill capital, with 130 pain clinics in operation. In Broward alone, more than one million oxycodone tablets are prescribed every month, according to local law enforcement authorities.
Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca, who attended the bill signing in Fort Lauderdale, praised the governor for supporting the new law.
?I applaud Governor Scott in realizing the severity of this epidemic, and using the full force of his office to aid in the fight to stop these senseless deaths. I think it shows his awareness of the issue that the first bill signing took place here in Broward County ?Ground Zero in the fight against this epidemic," LaMarca said in a statement.
Broward commissioners recently approved an ordinance with strict rules on zoning, hours of operation and business practices of pain management clinics. They also prohibits the clinics from operating within 1,200 feet of another pain management clinic, place of worship, child care center or educational center.
In Tampa, Scott said highlighted the statewide strike force he assembled with Bondi. The task force has made 350 arrests since March.
When asked if the bill was strong enough, Scott said it was and left the door open for more legislation if needed.
"If there?s something we need to do," he said, "we?ll do more."
Times/Herald staff writer Katie Sanders and Miami Herald editor Sergio R. Bustos contributed to this report. Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263.
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Windowfarm v1.1 needle set
Image by urbanlink.nl
Set of medical needles to experiment with alternative water intake setups.
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