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Columbus
Dispatch...
‘Pill mill’ bill
moves quickly to Senate
By Jim Siegel
Thursday, March 10, 2011
During his time as the Scioto County coroner, Rep. Terry Johnson got a
close-up look at the devastating impact that prescription-drug
addiction was having on his county, where drug-overdose deaths
increased 360 percent from 1999 to 2008.
“That got me into a sad and dark, ugly underbelly of a part of
Appalachia that few of you could even imagine,” the McDermott
Republican told his colleagues. “For the last three years as county
coroner, I saw 23 every year of my friends, neighbors and colleagues
who died from this scourge. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.”
The number of people sick and suffering, he said, is “enormous.”
With Gov. John Kasich watching from the chamber floor - something
veteran lawmakers say they had never seen any governor do before - the
House voted unanimously to approve a bill designed to attack Ohio’s
prescription-drug abuse problem.
House Bill 93, which now goes to the Senate, is aimed at so-called pill
mills, which critics say feed the drug crisis by skirting the law and
handing out millions of doses of addictive pain medications each year.
The bill would enhance reporting requirements for physicians who also
furnish drugs, establish a clearer definition of “pain management
clinic” and require the state Medical Board to develop standards for
operating such clinics.
It also would limit the prescription drugs that a doctor could dispense
to 2,500 doses in a 30-day period.
“The time for talk has ended. The time for action has begun,” said Rep.
Dave Burke, a pharmacist from Marysville who jointly sponsored the bill.
Drug addiction has hit southern Ohio particularly hard, but the growing
problem has spread throughout the state, killing four Ohioans a day. In
2009, drug overdose was the most common cause of accidental death in
the state.
Doctors and pharmacists in Scioto County dispensed 9.7 million doses of
prescription painkillers last year - an average of 123 pills for every
adult and child in the county.
Attorney General Mike DeWine is taking action, and last month Kasich
visited Portsmouth to announce the creation of a multiagency drug task
force. He also signed an executive order allowing treatment agencies to
use a new generation of medications to wean people off opiate addiction
and helped provide $400,000 to Scioto County for treatment and
rehabilitation programs.
“It is imperative that we enact this law to save Ohioans from the
scourge of prescription-drug abuse,” said Rep. Nancy Garland, D-New
Albany, who worked on parts of the bill in the previous legislative
session.
Kasich said he attended the House session because the issue is
important to him.
“It’s their day. I just wanted to see it,” he said.
Read it at The Columbus Dispatch
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