The pain management clinics have come under fire as more people enter treatment for a sort of "legal" opiate addiction. Their prescriptions were written by licensed physicians who charge a fee to basically just write a prescription.

In Bradenton, Florida on the west coast of Florida, officials are taking action. The Manatee County Commission unanimously adopted an ordinance to deal with the problem of pill mills. The ordinance makes it much harder for a clinic to simply provide prescriptions.

Prescription drug addiction and related deaths have been on the rise in recent years. In fact, emergency rooms are more likely to see prescription drug overdoses than illegal drug overdoses these days. The problem is exacerbated because those who take these drugs have a false sense of security: their dealer is essentially a doctor. If the doctor gave them a prescription, it must be okay.

Captain Pat Bartholomew of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office says the pill bill problem has become an epidemic.

Pill-mill physicians often prescribe the most potentially lethal drugs: OxyContin, morphine, and fentanyl. They can prescribe a maximum of 240 pills, more than enough to lead to addiction or death.

Bartholomew also noted that many of the pill mill’s customers come from out of state. Florida does not have strict drug-monitoring laws, making it a prime destination for drug addicts in search of an easy supply of opiates.

The ordinance requires clinics to apply for a permit within 30 days and then puts a 180-day moratorium on new clinics after the 30-day period. After the moratorium is over, the clinics will only be able to give enough medication to last 72 hours.

Bradenton is the only city in Manatee County to adopt this type of ordinance, but other cities may soon follow.

According to reports from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the South Florida Pill Mills are proliferating at an alarming rate. In 2007, there were only four such locations. In 2009, 115 were found in Broward Country, Florida alone.

A grand Jury was convened in Broward County to investigate the huge increase in Pill Mills in South Florida. Aside from their growing numbers, research into this area has also identified that the top 25 dispensing doctors of OxyCodone in the nation are located in Florida, with 18 of them in Broward County.

A Pill Mill is a pain clinic that treats patients for pain through the dispensing of large quantities of controlled substances for non-medical purposes. They tend to be rogue clinics that put out pills for cash. Patients will often go to these clinics faking illnesses and complaining about non-existent pain.

The same individual can visit several Pill Mills all in one day, providing significant quantities of drugs. The clinics are very profitable and drug dealers and traffickers obtain as much of any medication they need.

The Grand Jury in Broward County noted that Florida was delinquent in enacting legislation authorizing a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Finally, in 2009, the state enacted the legislation; the only problem is it does not go into effect until December of 2010.