Florida gets the profits, Kentucky gets the problem

“We’ve got more people dying of prescription drug overdoses than car accidents,’’
U.S. Rep Hal Rogers.


Attached a link to a great article published in today's Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/27/v-fullstory/2135476/kentucky-the-other-end-of-the.html again focusing on the unresolved pill mill issue in Florida.
The sobering facts speak for themselves:

* As far back as 2002, early in the epidemic, one fourth of all OxyContin-related deaths in the country took place in eastern Kentucky.
* According to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, there was a fourfold increase nationally in treatment admissions for prescription pain pill abuse during the past decade. The increase spans every age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, employment level and region. Nearly every family in eastern Kentucky has been touched by prescription-drug addiction and death.
* In Kentucky some harbor a deep resentment at Florida’s unwillingness to crack down on pill sales, for instance, at its refusal to set up a prescription database similar to those in other states to ensure that customers are not “doctor shopping’’ – scooping up some pills here, more pills there – by dealing with multiple physicians.

Meanwhile, dozens of people die every day in Florida and Kentucky but Governor Rick Scott and many of his political friends are stonewalling.



Yours,

Bernd