Pubdate: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2011 The Tribune Co. Contact: http://www2.tbo.com/static/tools/contact-us/ Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446 Author: Ray Rayes, Tampa Tribune 'PILL MILL' LAWS BEING FELT Some Pleased; Others Squeezed TAMPA -They walked into the clean, red brick medical offices and demanded prescription painkillers. The doctor shoppers and drug addicts thought the Tampa Pain Relief Center on East Fletcher Avenue was just another storefront clinic that freely dispensed powerful painkillerswithout proper background checks. When they were turned down by the nurse at the front desk, they grew angry, refused to calm down and were removed from the lobby by police. 'Some patients were threatening,' said Douglas Constant, a pain management physiA-cian and anesthesiologist at the practice. 'We've had some people come in thinking they can get anything.' It's a common occurrence in a town known as a hotbed for so-called 'pill mills' and in asociety grappling with an epidemic of prescripA-tion drug addiction, law enforcement and health officials say. Those factors, along with an increase over the past few years of unscrupulous doctors prescribing massive doses of opiate-based pills, have tarnished the reputations of physicians who strive to care for patients with legitimate pain, Constant said. 'There's a stigma,' he said. 'When you introduce yourself as a pain physician, it brings about a pejorative reaction.' Measures taken recently by state legislators may help change the public's perception of pain doctors and stop the illicit distribution of pills. Since Gov. Rick Scott approved tougher laws in June, most legitimate pain doctors and pharmacists have praised the changes and adapted to them, state officials say. 'Overall, things are moving along. There have been no complaints from doctors,' said Greg Giordano, chief aide to state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. Fasano sponsored the Senate version of the bill, which strengthened ordinances regarding the ownership and operation of pain clinics. Lawmakers and law enforcement officers say once-lax laws made Tampa and parts of South Florida hubs for the illegal distribution of pills. Visitors from other states were known to travel here to buy pills then return to their home states to sell them at higher prices. From October 2008 to March 2009, about 9 million tablets of oxycodone were prescribed in Florida, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. About 5 million pills were prescribed in Broward County, and 376,730 pills were dispensed in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties during that period, the DEA said. The new laws establish standards of care for doctors who prescribe narcotic-grade pills, require them to register with the state Department of Health and increase penalties against doctors who overprescribe to a minimum $10,000 fine and sixmonth suspension. The laws also ban pain physicians from dispensing the most abused pills, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone. Patients at the Tampa Pain Relief Center once were able to pick up the pills they needed at the practice soon after doctors examined them and prescribed medication. The dispensary room, located behind the front desk, now is empty and its pickup window has been shuttered. Constant said his office, at 3450 E. Fletcher Ave., hasn't taken a financial hit since the new ordinances prohibited him and his colleagues from dispensing medication. What the clinic lost is convenience for its customers. 'The nice thing was the on site dispensing,' Constant said. 'It wasn't a revenue generator, it was a convenience. But overall, it's not a big change for us.' Deborah Tracy, a pain management doctor in Spring Hill, said some physicians depended on dispensing pills and that the new laws are crippling them. 'It's putting the squeeze on doctors,' said Tracy, president of the Hernando County Med ical Society and past president of the Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. 'It's a valid revenue stream for physicians who do it right. If doctors can no longer dispense, pharmacies are going to make out big from this.' Dan Fucarino, owner of Carrollwood Pharmacy, said he won't. He refuses to sell oxycodone at his store and has signs on the front door proclaiming it. Calling himself more paranoid than other pharmacy owners, Fucarino said offering opiate-based pills may make him a target of thieves, drug addicts and other criminals. He has survived two robberies, in both cases facing gunmen, he said, and in 1989, one of his employees was killed during a robbery. 'I don't need that kind of business,' Fucarino said. 'There's some pharmacies out there, that's all they do, dispense painkillers. We're going to be around when all those pharmacies close down.' The standards for getting and keeping a pharmacy permit were raised this year. Inspections, financial disclosures and criminal background checks for owners and employees now are mandatory. But there's one component built into the new laws that pain doctors and pharmacists say they are looking forward to using, a tool that will provide the most help: the creation of an online database that will track when, where and in what quantities narcotic-grade drugs are prescribed. 'It will stop doctor shopping and it will stop double-dipping,' said Michelle Lese, an assistant professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach. 'We'll be able to tell what's going on with a particular patient.' More than 30 states already have prescription drug monitoring systems in place. Florida's version will launch in mid-October. Doctors and pharmacists will have no more than seven days to enter prescription information into the database after medication is prescribed. The system will give pharmacists more confidence that the prescriptions they are filling are valid, Lese said. 'No pharmacist wants to fill a prescription for a patient who will potentially overdose,' she said. Constant, the pain doctor, said he hopes the new regulations will improve pain management practices in Florida and help restore the reputations of physicians. Doctors, he said, must educate the community about what they really do. 'I'm always going to be an optimist because I love what I do,' Constant said. 'We can restore the confidence of the public. It's based on trust.' - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart