Pubdate: Thu, 10 Mar 2005
Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)
Copyright: 2005 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Karen Turni Bazile
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

CLINICS DISPENSING DRUGS FACE STRICTURES

Council Issues Ban, Plans To Limit Sites

The St. Bernard Parish Council is issuing a moratorium on new pain 
management clinics because, officials said, they want to change zoning laws 
to make it more difficult for such businesses to operate in the parish.

Parish and sheriff's officials said the clinics can prescribe or dispense 
prescription pain pills that can be abused.

St. Bernard Parish Coroner Bryan Bertucci praised the council's effort to 
limit establishments that make such medicines more accessible. He said two 
people died this week from overdosing on prescription drugs, though 
officials say the deaths are not linked to local clinics.

Bertucci said pain management clinics typically provide prescriptions for 
painkillers, such as Vicodin and Soma, to patients who say they suffer from 
chronic pain. Some clinics also offer their patients methadone to wean them 
from painkillers. When patients abuse the medicines and mix them, they can die.

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens said he supports a council 
moratorium and that he has stopped issuing occupational licenses for pain 
management clinics.

"I think there are legitimate pain management clinics, but I think this 
whole system (of prescribing narcotics) needs to be tightened up," he said.

Maj. Marcel David, who heads Stephens' Special Investigations Division, 
said his officers handle at least one overdose daily.

Officials said they cannot attribute any local overdose deaths to the three 
or four clinics in the parish, but they support efforts to make it harder 
for such businesses to open or to limit where they can be located.

Councilman Craig Taffaro, who is a certified counselor, said he believes 
the council will pass the moratorium at Tuesday's council meeting so parish 
officials can design new zoning laws to limit where the clinics can 
operate. The clinics can't be banned because government can't discriminate 
against one type of business, he said.

The council recently used a special zoning designation to limit where 
barrooms can open. In January, the council issued a 180-day moratorium on 
permits for tattoo and body-piercing parlors, as well as on adult 
bookstores, massage parlors, motels offering hourly rates and 
establishments that provide live adult entertainment.

Bertucci supports Taffaro's proposed moratorium on pain management clinics.

"I think it's good that it's at least being discussed and addressed, and it 
may make the people running these clinics nervous," Bertucci said.
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