Florida recently encated a law to regulate and monitor pain clinics that have become the start of a "pill pipeline" to the north, particularly to Appalachia, where prescription-drug abuse is rampant in many areas. Some national news outlets are paying more attention to the problem because of the death of Michael Jackson. The latest major story comes from Mark Potter of NBC News, who tells some heartbreaking stories about promising young people in Eastern Kentucky who died of overdoses.
"While the problem exists in every state in the country, Kentucky led the nation in the use of prescription drugs for non-medical purposes during the last year, according to the state's Office of Drug Control Policy." Potter reports. "Officials said prescription drug abuse is particularly acute in the cities and rural areas of Eastern Kentucky. Last year alone, at least 485 people died in Kentucky from prescription drug overdoses, according to the state's Cabinet for Health and Family Services." Circuit Judge Beth Lewis Maze of Mount Sterling, who holds court in four east-central Kentucky counties, told Potter, "It's an epidemic and I'm afraid we're losing a whole generation."
Potter notes that the Florida law "won't be fully implemented until late next year. Kentucky and most other states already have such monitoring laws in place, making it much more difficult for addicts and dealers to buy large amounts of prescription medication by going from clinic to clinic – a common practice in Florida."
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