Last week the Florida State Senate passed legislation that would crack down on the long-standing problem the state has had with pain clinics and the growing number of people “doctor shopping” for addictive medications, by implementing a statewide database that would monitor prescriptions. The initiative was proposed by Sen. Mike Fasano and passed unanimously in the state senate.
Although 38 other states, nationwide, had previously established such monitoring systems, Florida meandered in its decision due to the implicated, privacy issues associated with monitoring personal prescriptions. Still, many Floridians are more than happy to compromise the possibility of minor unwanted inquiries to their prescriptions, in return for a system especially designed to target the more potent opiate painkillers like oxycodone that are responsible for prescription drug overdoses across the state.
Prescription-drug overdoses have seemed to reach epidemic proportions in recent years; for example, the Tampa Bay area has had an average of about 500 fatalities annually, due to prescription-drug overdose, which are almost as many fatalities as those of car crashes in the area. Statewide the annual fatality rate, attributed to prescription-drug overdose, averages at about 2,000 a year, which is currently more than 3 times that of either cocaine or heroin.
Currently, the bill awaits approval from the House, before it can pass on to Governor Charlie Crist for a final signature. Nonetheless, the controversial stigma of privacy issues the policy carries with it has addiction experts, like Joel Kaufman of Broward County’s Commission on Substance Abuse, skeptical about the bill’s final authorization and official implementation. “It feels great that it’s gotten this far,” Kaufman said in a recent interview, “but until it gets to the governor’s desk, I’m cautiously optimistic.”