Word: clinicism
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...waiting room at Broward Pain Clinic is swarming. A woman begs a receptionist, "There's no way he can squeeze me in?" "We're packed," the receptionist explains. "Packed, packed, packed...
There are more of these pain clinics here in Broward County than there are McDonald's restaurants: 115 so-called pill mills, vs. about 70 of the burger franchises. And that profusion contributes to one big problem: there is no tracking system to prevent patients from getting multiple pill prescriptions at once and immediately, because the clinics hand out the pills rather than making people go to a pharmacy. The business card of the Broward Pain Clinic announces, "Dispensing on Site!" - a service that's also trumpeted by dozens of other clinics. Because of that, cocaine is no longer king...
...Broward County state attorney grand-jury report. In South Florida overall, there were 176 pill mills, up from 66 just 14 months before. This has contributed to tourism - pill-shopping trips to the Sunshine State from Tennessee and Kentucky, where authorities have cracked down hard on similar clinics, seem to be as common as Disney vacations nowadays. In the parking lot of the Broward Pain Clinic, there are just as many license plates from Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky as there are from Florida...
...last figure is equivalent to about 10 reported deaths a day. That's more than the number of fatalities from street drugs like cocaine and heroin. It doesn't help that in Florida, you don't need to be a doctor to run a pain-management clinic, Lamberti says. "You need a background check to get a liquor license - you can't be a convicted felon and open up a bar - but you can be a convicted felon and open up a pain clinic...
Case in point: a man outside the Broward County clinic who says he makes the 11-hour drive from Tennessee every month just to get his medication. He says he is prescribed medicine for chronic neck pain stemming from a forklift injury but cannot get the medicine he needs anywhere near his home. He won't divulge what he is prescribed. "I'd rather not say, but it's helping me," he says. "I'm not a junkie." The medicine allows him to keep working as an excavator, he says. "They help people that can't get medication that they...