Sat., Aug. 27 will be “Prescription Drug Take-Back Day,” the second annual statewide drug take-back event that will allow citizens to safely return unused or expired medications.
Though originally projected to go live at the end of September, a statewide prescription drug monitoring program will now be implemented on Oct. 17, according to recent projections.
Gov. Rick Scott is slated to sign House Bill 7095, a bill that will implement a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in the state, in three ceremonies across the state on Friday. The ceremonial signings will take place in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.
The Florida Senate passed a pill mill bill today, but not without some hurdles. Though they are both in agreement that Florida has a troubling prescription drug overdose problem, state Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, and Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, have long been at odds over how to implement a database that would track prescription drugs in the state.
State Sen. Mike Fasano’s so-called “pill mill bill,” which would create harsher punishments for pill mill operators and require that all doctors be trained in how to use the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, has undergone several changes in the past week.
On Friday, the federal government announced that a set of grants that would have partially funded a state prescription drug database would be unavailable for Fiscal Year 2011, a fact that has some proponents of Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program understandably concerned.
The Florida House passed its version of a controversial rewrite of state election laws, which Republican supporters said was intended to ensure the integrity of the state’s voting system.
Despite several hurdles, Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program is steadily moving forward.
Moves to thwart Florida’s notorious prescription drug problem are growing increasingly heated in the House and Senate.
Greg Giordano, a legislative aide to state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, had this to say about an article posted on the Florida House website that misleadingly quotes studies on the effectiveness of prescription drug monitoring programs: “By selectively quoting from the study the House reveals its unwillingness to acknowledge the potential value of the PDMP here in Florida.”
rss