Delray commissioners OK law aimed at limiting pain clinics
By Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — Delray Beach City Commissioners Tuesday gave a final OK on a second ordinance designed to put the screws to pain clinics.
The ordinance limits the number of prescriptions for narcotics a pharmacy can fill to 15 percent of its total. If a pharmacy fills 100 prescriptions in a given amount of time, no more than 15 can be for narcotics.
Earlier this year, commissioners prohibited doctors’ offices from filling prescriptions for narcotics except under limited circumstances, as a first step in shutting down pain clinics. However, the pain clinics could circumvent the ordinance by setting up separate “pharmacies” nearby to dispense the drugs. Almost all if not all of the sales from these entities were narcotics.
The intent of the ordinance was to shut the pain clinics, seen as a major source of narcotics on the street, without unduly burdening legitimate druggists and patients.
“It will keep pill mills out of the city,” said Police Sgt. Brady Myers. “It will be big for the community.” Myers was part of a group that helped draft the ordinance.
Originally the ordinance limited sales revenue from prescription drugs to 10 percent of a pharmacy’s total, but pharmacists said that approach was too complicated.
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