FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Apr 5, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Fast growing South
Florida pain clinics are actually "pill mills" where doctors sell narcotics such
as OxyContin to 65 patients per day or more, police say.
Broward County alone has 89 pain clinics, while the number of the clinics in
South Florida -- many located in strip malls and office parks -- has risen from
60 to 150 in the past year, the Miami Herald reported Sunday.
The sale of OxyContin and other pain-relieving narcotics to walk-in customers
attracts thousands of buyers from Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Massachusetts
and other states -- with some buyers sometimes camping outside the clinics
overnight, Hollywood, Fla., Police Capt. Allen Siegel, director of a South
Broward narcotics task force, told the newspaper.
Police blame a jump in the deaths from prescription pain medication on the
clinics, which, they say, flourish because of lax Florida laws allowing clinics
to have in-house pharmacies that sell drugs straight to clients walking in off
the street, the Herald said.
"This medicine is about profit-making," said Mark Trouville, special agent in
charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Miami office. "I hate to call
them doctors. These people are just out to make money."
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