Deaths from prescription drug overdoses jumped 360 percent in the last decade in the Appalachian region, according to the Center for Clinical and Translation Science. As a result of this epidemic, states in the Southeast have weighed legislation addressing prescription drug abuse.
Several states have focused on pain management clinics to prevent them from becoming so-called “pill mills.”
Taking action in 2011, Florida cracked down on “pill mills” by prohibiting physicians from dispensing Schedule II and III drugs, except in limited instances.
“They’ve [Florida] historically had a big problem with pill mills, where you can go in and get pills, not necessarily for legitimate reasons, and the reason why people go in to get the pills is so that they can resell them on the street,” said Mark Pew, senior vice president of business development for PRIUM.
Other Florida bills recently considered by the legislature would require physicians who prescribe narcotics to consult the state’s prescription drug monitoring program and require owners of pain management clinics to be licensed physicians.
Alabama and Georgia lawmakers have also sought to clamp down on pain management clinics.
The Georgia Pain Management Clinic Act mandates licensing of pain clinics as of July, 2013. The act prohibits doctors, nurses, and physician’s assistants from prescribing long-acting opioid painkillers in emergency rooms. The bill also bans doctors, nurses and physician’s assistants in emergency rooms from refilling prescriptions for opioid painkillers that have been lost, stolen or destroyed.
According to Gov. Nathan Dalton, there were just 10 pain clinics in the state a few years ago, but that number rose to 125 as surrounding states sought to remove the pill mills.
“We know this process works because we can observe the successes that have happened around us. When Florida enacted tougher laws, the number of pain clinics there dropped dramatically, as did deaths from oxycodone and hydrocodone. I hope to see similar results in Georgia,” Deal said.
While Georgia, Florida and Alabama considered tightened restrictions on pain management clinics, Tennessee failed to advance a bill prohibiting pain management clinics from dispensing controlled substances.
Though several opioid and prescription abuse bills also failed in West Virginia, one is still pending review by the governor. It would create the Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team in the chief medical examiner’s office.
North Carolina passed a measure that provides civil and criminal immunity to doctors who prescribe opioid antagonists to address overdoses.
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