Abuses of prescription painkillers is a hard pill for state lawmakers to swallow. So-called "pill mills" have transformed much of Florida into "the painkiller capital of the United States, the notorious home to a cottage industry of storefront pain clinics selling alarming numbers of narcotics and feeding a brazen black market," state Rep. John Legg said in a press release. ...more

October 24, 2009

State Sen. Dave Aronberg said he felt embarrassed when Kentucky's lieutenant governor called, urging him to help stop the flow of prescription narcotics out of Florida. ...more

March 22, 2009

County Commissioner Rose V. Ferlita will be honored as one of four Women of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida at a luncheon March 24 at the A La Carte Event Pavilion, 4050 Dana Shores Drive. ...more

March 11, 2009

Prescription drugs now kill more Floridians than heroin or cocaine, yet the state does not monitor the prescribing and dispensing of deadly painkillers, such as oxycodone. ...more

January 6, 2009

Most of what legislators heard Tuesday was a chorus of desperate pleas from community groups to keep their state funding intact. ...more

December 31, 2008

China's tainted milk scandal, which has led to bans or recalls in 16 countries and raised fresh concerns about the made-in-China label, spread Monday to big-name Western brands as British candy-maker Cadbury announced a recall of its Chinese-made chocolate. ...more

September 30, 2008

Type "OxyContin" and "pharmacy" into your Internet search engine and watch what happens. Within seconds, you'll have links to thousands of Web sites promising easy access to the drug. The same goes for Vicodin or just about any other painkiller you can name. ...more

December 30, 2007

TAMPA - Type "OxyContin" and "pharmacy" into your Internet search engine and watch what happens. Within seconds, you'll have links to thousands of Web sites promising easy access to the drug. The same goes for Vicodin or just about any other painkiller you can name. These addictive drugs are strictly regulated by state and federal laws and are supposed to be available only through prescriptions. But with a credit card and a click or two on a computer, it's possible to bypass the system and have the medications delivered to your door. ...more

December 28, 2007