Drug Dealers in a White Coat

Miami Herald, Letter To The Editor

Posted on Mon, Apr. 13, 2009
Public health should be legislative priority



Re the April 8 editorial Belatedly, Florida takes on prescription-drug dealers: The unprecedented concentration of ''pain clinics'' in our community contributes to out-of-control opioid abuse, narcotic-drug dealing and endangers public health. It requires the concerted efforts of law enforcement, political leadership and the medical community to root out this problem. Several steps can be taken right now:
• Impose a moratorium on dispensing narcotics in physician's offices unless the prescribing physician is board certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine and operates within a licensed and certified facility to be approved by a designated agency.

• Make mandatory monthly inspections of all pain clinics in South Florida. Skilled inspectors can be trained to randomly audit charts and on-site pharmacies and monitor patient flow.

• Conduct criminal background checks of all operators and their financial backers, which will be reviewed and updated quarterly.

• Implement a prescription-drug monitoring system to identify drug-seekers and doctor-shoppers.

• Require the Board of Medicine to suspend the license of any physician who violates the standards of care as it pertains to inappropriate prescription of narcotics.

Let's act together to rid our community of these narco-cowboys. Let's protect our families, friends and patients from such predators. We can't be afraid to call them by their name: drug dealers in white coats.

BERND WOLLSCHLAEGER, MD, president, Dade County Medical Association, North Miami Beach