Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, today made further strides in doing away with Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, announcing at a press conference that legislation will soon be introduced to officially repeal it.

The program, which would create a database that would track the prescription of painkillers in an effort to thwart “pill mills” and drug overdoses, has been supported by a wealth of politicians in Florida and beyond. But some have come out strongly against it, including newly minted Gov. Rick Scott, who cited privacy and cost concerns in his announcement of a decision to repeal the program.

In a news conference this morning, Cannon announced that legislation would soon be introduced to do just that. The attempted repeal will likely spark a heated debate in the legislature’s other chamber, where state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, have been staunch supporters of the Drug Monitoring Program.

Cannon has long been opposed to the drug-monitoring program. In 2009, he was one of 13 state lawmakers to sign a letter to then-Gov. Charlie Crist, requesting the veto of Senate Bill 462, which originally proposed the program. Those who signed the letter wrote that their request was based on privacy concerns, a claim that has been disputed by the program’s proponents.

The Miami Herald‘s Naked Politics blog quoted Cannon as saying that the database is “short-sighted” because it is reactive, rather than proactive: “We must change the way we address providers and the supply rather than tracking what’s supplied to people who are already addicted. … Banning doctor direct sale is the only way to do it.” Cannon added that he would prefer allowing prescription drugs to be distributed only in pharmacies, and not in clinics.