In Georgia, Cobb and Neighboring Cities Try to Ban Pill Mills
Jun 28, 2010
A move to create a prescription drug monitoring program in Georgia stalled in the Legislature this year, leaving local governments to combat the problem on their own. The failed legislation would have discouraged "pill mills" by tracking the dispensation of prescriptions via an electronic database. The database would identify patients who are doctor-shopping and physicians who are writing large numbers of prescriptions. Unlike legitimate pain clinics that are affiliated with hospitals, authorities say pill mills perform very little screening of patients before doling out large numbers of powerful narcotics.
As of January 2010, 34 other states had prescription drug monitoring programs. Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency officials are concerned that pill mills driven out of neighboring states will start flocking to Georgia. Deputy director Rick Allen estimates about five pill mills have opened in various parts of the state since May. A suspected pill mill that set up shop briefly in Kennesaw earlier this year prompted Cobb County and several of its cities to pass moratoriums in March barring the opening of new pain clinics. Cobb County is working to develop ordinances that will clearly distinguish between legitimate medical clinics and those that operate as pill mills.
Learn more: Prescription for Disaster: How Teens Abuse Medicine
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Source
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution