Vern Buchanan: “In my home State of Florida, seven people die a day, each day, of prescription drug abuse. We had three teenagers a…”

“In my home State of Florida, seven people die a day, each day, of prescription drug abuse. We had three teenagers a couple of weeks ago die in 1 week. A gentleman, a friend of mine, buried his daughter on a Saturday. I talked to him on Monday, and he pleaded with me to do something about killing these pill mills all across our State. Florida prescribes 10 times more oxycodone pills than all other States combined. To put it simply, we have more pain clinics than McDonald's restaurants. It's time to put these pill mills out of business. We have 1,300 pill mills in Florida. We need to shut them down now. Four thousand deaths in Florida in 2008. I've introduced legislation to crack down on pill mills. My bill will stiffen penalties and fines and use the seized assets to fund prescription drug databases. Forty-two States have databases. Florida does not. We need a database today. The time to act is now. I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to join me in this fight, to put these pill mills out of business and stop these needless deaths. ____________________”