‘Pill mills’ proliferating in Ky.; legislators plan countermeasures

Suspected “pill mills” that feed Kentucky’s “epidemic of prescription-drug abuse” have proliferated in the last two years, and “not just in Eastern Kentucky, where the problem was once most prominent,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported yesterday. “Faced with a growing problem, calls are mounting for increased regulation of pain clinics” with proposed laws for the 2012 General Assembly, said the story by Josh Kegley, Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Bill Estep.

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES PER PERSON BY COUNTY 3RD QUARTER 2011

Pain-pill cases have become the most prevalent type of drug case for state police in Central Kentucky, outpacing cocaine and marijuana, Lt. Todd Dalton, assistant commander of the state police drug-enforcement unit for the eastern half of the state, told the newspaper. Dalton “said that when Florida authorities started discussing legislation aimed at curbing pill mills, clinic owners started looking to move into Kentucky.” (Read more)