Florida is among 11 states without electronic means to track the dispensing of controlled substances, but as of May, a new law was passed by the Florida General Assembly and has Kentucky lawmakers hoping the pill pipeline will cease.
During a sentencing hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Ashland, Judge David L. Bunning told convicted drug dealers Roger Martin Jr., and Jason Clay Carter that he is hopeful the new law will curb Kentuckians appetite for prescription drugs.
“I have been advised the state of Florida is going to adopt rules that I hope will curtail the problem of drugs being piped from Florida to Kentucky,” Judge Bunning said. “This has become an epidemic, and we must get a handle on it before more lives are destroyed.”
The drug epidemic has mounted by the day as people from Rowan, Carter and Elliott counties travel in planes, buses and vans to Florida’s pill mill to visit doctors prescribing hundreds of pain pills for cash.
And although the prescriptions are obtained legally, traffickers carry the drugs back to the Bluegrass and sell them on the streets, causing numerous drug-related court cases, convictions – and even deaths blamed on overdoses. Read More Electronic Prescription