Clearwater, FL-March 3, 2011-The DEA has taken firm
action in South Florida to put a stop to the region’s flourishing business of
pill mills in which illegal prescription narcotics are sold. According to the Florida Courier “The raids
from Miami to West Palm Beach were the culmination of
a two-year investigation by a task force of federal, state and local
investigators, an operation dubbed "Operation Pill Nation."
Undercover agents were dispatched to storefront pain clinics to buy potent
painkillers such as oxycodone without any medical justification for the pills”
and what they discovered is nothing short of scandalous.
Suncoast Rehabilitation
Center, an alcohol and drug
rehabilitation facility utilizing the Narconon method of substance abuse
treatment, is on top of the new widespread drug epidemic and has first hand
seen the destruction these pill mills have caused. We offer a program that
helps people regain their lives and with South Florida
being the hotspot for pill milling and illegal opiate prescription use, we are
advocates of the current pill mill busts.
The Florida Courier
states that this is something unlike any other investigation as it is a new way
of drug dealing because “the massive trafficking of prescription drugs
through pain clinics operating with the outward appearance of legitimacy —
though inside the clinics, doctors hand out pills without taking medical exams,
and armed guards patrol the lobbies.”
These
clinics have exploded all over South Florida in recent years —
in Broward alone, the number of clinics grew from four to 130 in less
than four years — making the region the prime supplier of illegal pills in the
eastern United States. The clinics attract drug couriers posing as
patients who travel from Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia,
where an oxycodone pill can sell for 10 times the price charged by a South Florida doctor.
In
the first six months of 2010, the amount of oxycodone sold in Florida was nine times more than the oxycodone
distributed in the rest of the United States,
said Mark Trouville, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration's Miami field
office.
Some
of the doctors arrested Wednesday attracted the attention of investigators for
prescribing eye-popping amounts of pills. Among them: Dr. Zvi Perper,
charged with trafficking from a Delray
Beach clinic. In the first six months of 2010,
Perper prescribed 387,000 oxycodone tablets, making him the 22nd-most prolific
prescriber of the drug in the U.S.
for that period. Perper is the son of Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward
County Medical Examiner.
Also
arrested Wednesday: Vincent Colangelo, 42, a convicted heroin dealer
from Davie who
ran a network of seven pain clinics
in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, luring would-be
patients with ads posted on some 1,600 Internet domain names. According to a
federal indictment, Colangelo's clinics distributed more than 660,000 oxycodone
pills in a two-year period, helping Colangelo and his partners reap more
than $22 million. Investigators believe the scheme brought
in $150,000 a day.”
It’s
shocking to believe that there are drug dealers posing as doctors and promoting
the demise of many through aiding their opiate addiction. As a matter of fact the Florida Courier says,
“Though Colangelo had no medical training, he had nine doctors working for him
at the clinics, which were held in the names of straw-man owners to conceal
Colangelo's interest. Colangelo served four years in state prison for
trafficking heroin and cocaine before his release in 2004.”
And
the arrests are going to continue as this is just the beginning of “Operation
Pill Mill”. Florida has yet to impose a monitoring system
to ensure that people are not “pill shopping”.
“Pill Shopping” is when one goes to multiple doctors in order to get
large amounts of pain meds to sell to others for profit. Suncoast feels strongly about Florida implementing a
prescription drug monitoring system.
Pills
such as Oxycodone, Oxycontin, Roxicet, and other opiate pills are highly
addicting and are ruining the lives every day.
The state of Florida recognizes that we
are in crisis over the use and abundant writing of prescriptions for these
drugs and approximately 85% of addicts that come through Suncoast Rehab Center are prescription drug abusers.
If you or a loved one need help to truly
and once-and-for-all overcome drug and alcohol addition, call an Admissions
Counselor at (800) 511-9403 or visit our website at www.suncoastrehabcenter.com.
We CAN help.
