Report: Local pharmacies crack down on controlled substance Rxs

NEW YORK Several independent pharmacies in southern Florida have opted not to fill prescriptions for controlled substances for customers from out of state, according to published reports.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Sunday that pharmacists there had grown so fed up with drug traffickers from out of state looking to fill prescriptions for prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and alprazolam that they had decided to stop filling prescriptions for those drugs altogether for customers, unless they could produce Florida IDs.

The region has lately become a major center of prescription drug abuse. Drug dealers tend to use independent pharmacies because less scrutiny is placed on prescriptions, the newspaper reported.

“We certainly understand why pharmacists would err on the side of caution and not allow people from out of state to acquire these pain medications under what could be dubious circumstances,” National Community Pharmacists Association spokesman John Norton told Drug Store News. “Drug diversion is a practice we take seriously and something that warrants closer coordination between doctors and pharmacists to make sure the rampant abuse is stopped. We also believe Florida needs to strengthen their laws and certainly should work to limit the circumstances in which prescribers also dispense medications.”