Pain clinic advocate blasts Broward grand jury claims

As Florida politicians and law enforcement continue to decry the epidemic of prescription pain pill abuse in the state, an advocate for pain management clinics is questioning the validity of a 2009 Broward grand jury report that is being used across the state by local governments as a barometer for gauging the problem.

The grand jury report paints a bleak picture of the emergence of so-called “pill mills” in South Florida that are dispensing prescriptions for powerful pain medication such as oxycodone at will, contributing to a dramatic increase in pill overdoses. A statewide medical examiner’s report recently released also reported a spike in overdoses in 2009 statewide.

On Thursday, the director of the Florida Society of Pain Management fired back at the results of the Broward grand jury investigation, one of the few public statements to be made on behalf of clinics in the state after legislators recently created new laws tightening restrictions on pain clinics set to take effect Oct. 1.

“The Grand Jury Report is ultimately an embarrassment of monumental proportions because of the slanted, biased, and misleading testimony by ‘pain medicine specialists’ and the complete lack of any law enforcement data or statistics,” says the group’s director Paul Sloan

Sloan then points to a report by the FSPM called “Misrepresentations, and Deceptions as Reported In: ‘The Interim Report of the Broward County Grand Jury.’”  It can be read here.