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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU Medical Students Hold Panel Discussion on Prescription Drug Overdose
NSU’s medical students, faculty, and community leaders organized a public panel discussion on Apr. 12 at the Steele Auditorium on NSU’s main campus. The panel for “Pain Management vs. Pill Mills” consisted of experts from the medical and legal community, as well as treatment providers, legitimate pain management caregivers, and former addicts – all of whom are dedicated to fighting the problem of prescription drug overdose. The panel was moderated by WSVN-TV investigative reporter Carmel Cafiero, whose watchdog stories helped bring the issue of so called “pill mills” into the public eye.
Pill mills are doctor’s offices, clinics, and/or health care facilities that routinely over-prescribe and dispense large quantities of controlled substances – such as painkillers – to patients. These are establishments that often operate without insurance and on a cash-only basis. They run robust businesses, selling high concentrations of pills. Their patients, who are often “doctor shopping,” travel to Florida from states as far away as Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maine by the busloads to visit these pill mills. These patients fill their prescriptions from one pill mill to the next until they end up with a myriad of pills that they use themselves or sell for top dollar on the black market.
“Nationwide, the problem is out of control,” said Raymond G. Ferrero III, J.D., partner with Addiction Recovery Legal Services law firm and the executive director of health affairs for NSU’s Health Professions Division. “South Florida has become an epicenter of the illegal prescription drug trade that’s feeding America’s demand for prescription painkillers and other addictive narcotics.”