Prescription Drug Abuse through “Pill Mills” Will Be Combated by DHEC and SLED
According to a recent report, South Carolina ranks 16th in the nation in drug overdose deaths, and many of those deaths are related to prescription drug abuse. Now, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and the Department of Health and Environmental Control, are teaming up to stop “pill mills,” a large contributor to the problem of prescription drug abuse.
“After marijuana use, prescription drug abuse is the number one problem facing our state,” says Captain Frank O’Neil, SLED.
On Tuesday, October 8th, South Carolina health officials said that, to stem the tide of prescription drugs released onto the market through pill mills, they would shorten the time pharmacists had to turn over prescription information. Catherine Templeton, the director of DHEC, said that the joint effort would help officials more quickly identify people who might fill the same prescription at multiple pharmacies in multiple counties.
“This is an epidemic in South Carolina, and it’s hard to track because people shop doctors. They shop pharmacists. They go over county lines,” Templeton said.
Templeton said that new requirements, as of January 1, 2014, will force pharmacists to turn over prescription filling information to DHEC within 24 hours. Currently, pharmacists have a month to turn over information about prescriptions of controlled substances. The requirement is part of the Prescription Monitoring Program, created in 2008 and mandatory for all pharmacists.
“Currently, it would take 30 days before the report was made. So therefore, they could proliferate all of these pills into the community after having gotten them fraudulently,” says Solicitor Dan Johnson, Fifth Circuit, of pill mill perpetrators.
“We would be able to reduce that gap, to 24 hours and therefore reduce the number of pills that could be proliferated into the community, greatly,” Johnson added.
“We can’t turn a blind eye, and neither can these communities that are involved,” O’Neal said, adding that more than 200 people in South Carolina died in 2012 as a result of prescription drug abuse.
“The cornerstone to start turning the tide on this epidemic is to reduce the excess supply of prescription drugs causing addiction, rather than medical benefit, emanating from the physician prescription pad, both from unscrupulous pill mills and unwittingly naive physicians,” South Carolina Inspector General Patrick Maley wrote in his 27-page report in May.
Problems arise not only from individuals filling prescriptions repeatedly, but from “pill mills” in the form of pain clinics. A recent bill passed in Georgia is designed to crack down on pain clinics, many of which operate legitimately to help at least half their clients manage chronic pain. However, both prescribers and individuals can abuse these clinics, which then become “pill mills.”
“There are legitimate pain clinics out there. People have chronic pain, but when we have people traveling to these pain clinics and none of them live in the state of Georgia, that is a clue,” said Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force Commander Capt. Mark Mayton, of the new Georgia law. “That’s a red flag to us that it is not a legitimate medical facility rendering legitimate medical care to people who have chronic pain.”
The Strom Law Firm Can Help with Prescription Abuse Charges
If you have received criminal drug abuse charges, or are suspected of abusing prescription drugs, you are not automatically guilty, and you do not give up any of your rights. The attorneys at the Strom Law Firm can help defend you. We offer free, confidential consultations to discuss the facts of your case. Do not let criminal drug charges such as trafficking or possession ruin your reputation and career prospects. Contact us today. 803.252.4800.
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