If Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature were hoping to create jobs, they certainly stimulated the legal profession with two new edicts on drug testing. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit to block the governor's executive order requiring some 100,000 state employees be tested for drugs. The group also is likely to sue to overturn new legislation that requires all welfare recipients to be screened for controlled substances. If they test positive, they lose their benefits. Like the ACLU, we see these measures as unconstitutional governmental invasions of privacy. [continues 291 words]
ST. PETERSBURG - They give police the location of a drug buy, a lead on a witness, the name of a killer. In exchange, confidential informants get cash or a good word put in with a judge to help reduce a criminal sentence. 'Informants are incredibly necessary to solve crime,' said retired Pasco County sheriff's Lt. Bobby Sullivan, a former vice commander. 'Nobody knows crime like the criminal, but you have to keep in mind that they are a criminal. 'They are on the other side.' The distinction was blurred this week when the FBI arrested St. Petersburg police Detective Anthony Foster on charges that he extorted $8,000 in cash and goods from an informant who was trying to avoid jail time. [continues 943 words]
I recall that Gov. Rick Scott said he was going to sell his interest in the drug-testing firm he owns so as not to have a conflict of interest when mandating testing of state employees. Sounds reasonable. Yet, a reasonable person could infer that he will still profit handsomely because the sale price of the company will be increased to recognize that a steady stream of revenue will be guaranteed. So Scott will make all his profit up front and not have to wait for that revenue stream to pay off. Pretty slick, Mr. Governor. Too bad for you we are not all as stupid as you would prefer. Richard Rogers, Pace [end]
As a candidate, Rick Scott proclaimed that he was not a politician. That claim evaporated early, when he announced a media event to declare the accomplishments of his first week in office. Five months into the job, he already has become a serial politician. Only a serial politician would conduct a three-city bill-signing tour to take credit for legislation that he first opposed and had little to do with getting through the Legislature. On Friday, Gov. Scott went to Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando to tout his signing of HB 7095, a law that strengthens the state's prescription database monitoring program, increases penalties for doctors who overprescribe addictive narcotics and bans doctors from dispensing the drugs. It also requires tracking of wholesale distribution of certain controlled substances and provides $3 million to support state and local law-enforcement efforts to close down "pill mills" that supply prescription painkillers in Florida and throughout the eastern United States. [continues 327 words]
Pressed by a community increasingly affected by prescription drug abuse, Sarasota County commissioners responded Tuesday with a new, strict set of regulations. The rules are designed to preserve access to legitimate pain-management practitioners but keep out illicit businesses -- those that feed a black-market trade in addictive narcotics. The county's new requirements represent a step forward -- if they withstand potential legal challenges and can be properly enforced. The community also should recognize that crackdowns alone cannot solve the growing problem of opiate addiction. Prevention and educational efforts, as well as broader treatment options, are needed. [continues 555 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered California to release 30,000 inmates, ruling that conditions at its overcrowded prisons amounted to cruel-and-unusual punishment. Can the same thing happen in Florida? Probably. With 102,000 inmates, Florida has the third-largest penal system in America. Florida locks up inmates at a rate of 559 per 100,000 residents. That's actually higher than California's 457 inmates per 100,000 population. Gov. Rick Scott and state lawmakers seem to think the solution to overcrowded prisons is privatization -- one of the largest prison-privatization programs in U.S. history. [continues 216 words]
When someone applies for government support, where do they think these funds are coming from? I believe they are tax dollars from every working person in the country. So why shouldn't welfare recipients have to pass a drug test to receive this free money? Many employed people in the country have to pass a drug test to gain employment. If they are injured on the job, companies often require a drug test before they can return to work. Where are the rights of the taxpayers being upheld? If recipients need to receive welfare, they should not be spending money on the purchase of drugs, period. Can someone, except a welfare recipient, tell me where their rights are being violated? The trouble with our welfare system is we give all of this money out and do not hold anybody accountable for it. [continues 66 words]
A Decade of Dependence on Prescription Pills Has a Woman Fighting for Her Sons. More Decisions, and Kids, Are on the Way. Child welfare workers had decided that Shannon could not care for her children. The reasons? She was moving from hotel to hotel and had no stable housing. She was still seeing her abusive boyfriend. And she had a prescription drug problem. In Pinellas and Pasco counties, calls to the child abuse hotline about parents on pain pills have increased 600 percent in the past three years. Some judges and caseworkers report anecdotally that doctor-prescribed drugs affect up to 80 percent of child welfare cases. [continues 2689 words]
Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation into law to crack down on pill mills in Florida. 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. [continues 813 words]
The Issue: Welfare Recipients Must Now Submit to Drug Tests. Political Grandstanding: 1; The Good Of The People: 0 That's the scorecard the Florida Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott racked up with their little gamesmanship in pushing through a new welfare drug testing law that is nothing short of punitive, prejudiced and lacking in merit. Under the new measure, anyone seeking state welfare assistance would have to submit to and pay for a drug test, with the costs reimbursed if the applicant passes. [continues 343 words]
FORT LAUDERDALE =AD As Gov. Rick Scott performed a ceremonial signing of a new law cracking down on pill mills Friday, Hellene Grundler sat in the front row grinning with pleasure. It was her turn to smile. In the past, the issue of prescription drug abuse had cost her tears. On Aug. 15, 2009, the same day her daughter gave birth to her grandson, Grundler found her son Derek, 32, dead of an overdose of the powerful painkiller oxycodone in his Broward apartment. [continues 618 words]
Regarding the May 25 editorial about Florida's reputation as the nation's pill pusher: Switzerland faced a similar problem in the early 1990s. Addicts and dealers had converged on Zurich and Bern because of their liberal drug policies. The Swiss tourist image was being tarnished. Overdose deaths had spiked and AIDS was spreading. Zurich's response was twofold: First, they cracked down on dealers, and second, they initiated an "experiment" to expand the availability of opiate substitutes, even heroin. It worked. The average age of registered addicts rose, an indication that kids are not becoming addicted, and the number of patients needing heroin stabilized at 1,300. Use of illegal drugs other than opiates either declined or stayed the same. In 2008 the Swiss people voted over 2-to-1 to make it a permanent part of their national health system. Florida is doing the right thing to crack down. Now we should increase the availability of legal methadone to drive pill mills out of business, permanently. John Chase Palm Harbor [end]
One hundred years ago, opium was the enemy and a bare handful of highly principled Americans persuaded the international community to restrict opium production. They believed that no government should benefit from the opium business, as the British, Spanish and French had done in China, the Philippines and Vietnam, respectively. They were tight on principle, but wrong on logic. They must have believed that if opium supply decreased by, say 25 percent, that addiction would also decrease by 25 percent. But it does not. While many casual users quit because of price and fear of arrest -- addicts don't. They do whatever it takes to get cash for the higher price. They, not the casual users, fuel the wealth and violence of the illegal market. Recent policy experiments in Europe indicate that if we had focused on the addiction (rather than the drug) we would have something to show for our 100-year effort. John Chase Palm Harbor, Fl. [end]
Florida finally is poised to rid itself of its disgraceful but well-deserved reputation as the nation's pill pusher. Armed with a new law that cracks down on "pill mills" that churn out prescriptions for powerful painkillers, the state's surgeon general, Dr. Frank Farmer of Ormond Beach, will lead the fight against a problem he compares to the great epidemics of the past such as polio, yellow fever and deadly strains of influenza. "Throughout history ... there have been certain epidemics we have had to respond to," he told The News-Journal. "How we get rid of the doctors who are using their medical licenses illegally to write these prescriptions will define how we are viewed by history." [continues 621 words]
Regarding 'Fighting pill mills' (Our Views, May 18): For the short run, we have no alternative. But for the long run we should consider other methods. The best example is a Swiss 'experiment' to offer heroin to hard-core addicts while greatly expanding methadone maintenance. It began is 1994 and is now known as HAT (heroin assisted treatment). In a 2008 referendum the Swiss people voted over 2 to 1 to make it a permanent part of their national health system. [continues 110 words]
Federal agents dubbed the case "Operation Cedar Sweep," zeroing in on South Florida head-shop owners of mostly Lebanese descent. Some were suspected of selling "cut" for cocaine and sending profits to the Middle East for possible terrorist activities. But after a two-year FBI investigation with undercover police officers, Miami federal prosecutors lacked evidence to make terrorism support cases. And this week, prosecutors also decided to drop drug-related charges against 27 defendants, many of whom had been detained since their arrests early this year. [continues 864 words]
THE ISSUE: Some Loopholes In Pill Mill Law. Sure, there are loopholes in the new pill mill law, as critics have been quick to point out. That shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. You would be hard-pressed to find much legislation that doesn't have loopholes. The totally perfect bill has yet to be passed. What is important, however, is that the pill mill law was approved by the Florida Legislature after much debate, and it beats the alternative, which would be no bill at all in a state that leads the nation in prescription drug abuse. [continues 304 words]
There is a good chance that before you got your job, you were drug tested first. Now, heads of families who receive welfare will also be. Gov. Rick Scott is expected to sign legislation that would make all welfare recipients pass a drug test before they get their check. The legislation, House Bill 353, has already passed the Florida Senate and House. While I believe that all needy families should get as much help as possible, it is also important that the heads of the families help themselves. [continues 494 words]
The Florida Legislature just passed a bill requiring all welfare recipients to take periodic drug tests to receive their welfare payments. The reasoning for this was that those on welfare receive taxpayer money and we should take every precaution to safeguard that money from possibly being used for buying drugs. Appellate courts have already held laws of this nature unconstitutional because they single out just one group of people. It would appear that the way to correct this problem, and the logical extension of that argument, should be that each legislator should be required to also be part of a random drug testing program. They take a lot more taxpayer dollars per person than any welfare recipient does, and from the votes the majority made in this year's legislative session, it's a reasonable request to make! ERIC WEST, Daytona Beach [end]
MIAMI-Florida's legislature passed a bill that aims to crack down on the notorious "pill mills" that have made the state the epicenter of illegal prescription-drug sales in the country. The bill, which passed both the House and Senate unanimously on Friday, stiffens penalties for doctors who overprescribe medication and for individuals who improperly set up pain-management clinics. It also tightens reporting requirements to a soon-to-be-created drug-monitoring database. Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who had been lambasted by critics in and outside of the state for his opposition to the database, plans to sign the measure into law, said spokesman Brian Burgess. [continues 513 words]
Inside Florida
