The St. Petersburg Times has a good story on the pain management clinic epidemic in Hillsborough County today. Obviously Tampa Bay Wellness Center is not alone in doling out prescription drugs (in all likelihood to addicts and dealers, though I don’t know that for certain). The story says the police are finally starting to do something about this – though it takes a drug overdose death every 35 hours in Hillsborough County to make this happen. Apparently the problem has to do with prescription drug oversight – there is no electronic tracking system in place, so there is no way to know how many drugs are being prescribed by doctors. Ergo, doctors in Hillsborough County can prescribe thousands and thousands of pills a week and no one will stop by to say anything about it. Tampa needs a new slogan: Come Visit Tampa, Where Narcotics Are an MRI Away!
