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Moratorium on Pain Clinics? Why not ban gambling, drinking and fast food too?
• Margate politicians to seek moratorium on pain clinics Wednesday
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Monday,
March 15, 2010
Spend a little time with seniors and the disabled addicted to pain pills in Margate and you’ll find that most of these addicts not only get their pain medicine from local pain clinics, many of them pay for pain meds with taxpayer-supported Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
In fact, one addict said she goes to the pain clinic once a week for meds, pays for them with her disability check, takes what she needs and resells the rest in the street. Others with chronic pain say that without their pain meds they would probably slip into an irreversible state of depression.
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Law enforcement agencies in cities and counties across South Florida are working diligently on pain clinic moratoriums with the hopes of slowing or stopping the proliferation of poorly-managed pain clinics in the region.
Stories have emerged in the press regarding the complaints from business owners located next to or near pain clinics and who are spooked by the ‘undesirables’ they say hang out in front of these clinics, which is all well and good, but in reality these complaints are about loitering and the inability of their landlord and / or local code enforcement to keep people from “hanging out” in front of a business.
Statistics such as the ones revealed by the Boca Raton police that say incidents involving prescription drugs in their community have increased 1000 percent in 2005-2009 are very impressive, if indeed their problem with prescription drugs is related to pain clinics in the area.
On Wednesday, Margate City officials will be holding a public hearing discussing the city’s proposed moratorium on pain clinics in Margate. It’s likely that they will get support for their moratorium from residents, police and others in the community because, at face, this action seems like a win-win for the community and is supported by Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) efforts.
What has Margate city officials alarmed is the DEA's 2009 National Prescription Drug Threat Assessment that points to Florida as a center of illicit pain medication (opioid) activity and claims that the Sunshine State attracts drug traffickers and addicts from all over the east coast--which South Florida attracts most people in search of growing criminal enterprises because of our transcient population, desperate immigrants and, as much as it dismays me to say, corrupt politicians who can be bought and paid for. This much hasn't changed since the Mob left Pompano years ago.
But if a moratorium on pain clinics is in order because of their negative impact on resident safety health and addiction, then isn’t a moratorium on bars, beer joints and nightclubs—places where unemployed alcoholics clamor, leave in their cars in a drunken stupor and wreak havoc on society and their families—in order too?
Are not bartenders who over serve these people for tip money on a daily basis just as guilty as a doctor who prescribes too many pills to someone in the name of profit? Is an addiction to pain meds worse than an addiction to alcohol?
Why not a moratorium on fast food restaurants in Margate, like LA did in 2008. Can we not hold fast food restaurants at least partially responsible for obesity in our city, a disease with a proven connection to early mortality in adults and attention deficit disorder in children?
Then of course follows the moratorium on casino gambling, an addiction that inflicts the old and young alike in Margate. As a result, we should ban casinos, right? If you disagree, then read this report on the impacts of gambling on families.
I think I've made my case for the slippery slope Margate officials will be taking residents down in their plight for a moratorium on pain clinics. If you don't see it, it's called freedom of choice, which is a tenet to our Constitution.
Putting moratoriums on legitimate businesses is damaging to the free enterprise system and it’s unlikely that any Margate taxpayer wishes elected officials to spend hard-earned taxpayer dollars employing city officials to investigate the ramifications of a moratorium on pain clinics in the city, as indicated by Wednesday's proposed ordinance.
If doctors and pain clinics are illegally dispensing pain medications to patients in Margate, then it’s the job of law enforcement to stop them, as indicated by recent DEA raids—not the job of politicians and their moratoriums. We have laws set in place to effectively deal with black market drug activity and the enforcement of those laws are what taxpayers demand.
Before making up your mind about Margate’s moratorium on pain clinics, keep in mind that elected officials in favor of this moratorium are the same the same politicians who, year after year, accept federal housing grants that attract a lowly element to Margate, say residents, and a demographic that makes for more likely addicts, report studies on substance abuse among low income earners.
Other things to consider are the everyday drugs that pain sufferers turn to when they can't get the narcotics they need. When chronic pain patients can't get opioids, they often turn to using tremendous amounts of drugs like Tylenol and Motrin, which can cause serious liver and kidney damage. As a result of DEA raids, pain patients have been reported dying from kidney and liver disease brought on by "suicide by Tylenol," reports Frank Owen of the Village Voice.
Many pain patients also die by their own hand in the absence of pain medication, reports Owens, because they just can’t take the pain anymore. Since the DEA started their nationwide crackdown of pain clinics in 2003, at least 17 cases of suicide were reported in Arkansas alone that were directly related to pain medication withdrawal.
Reader Opinion
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