Ever since Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi took office, she has made it her mission to go after pain clinics. Known as "pill mills," these prescription drug pain clinics provide medication to patients who normally could not afford such expensive medication or do not have health insurance.
However, Bondi and the rest of the law enforcement community believes that pain clinics are nothing more than drug trafficking operations, recklessly providing prescription drugs to addicts and drug dealers.
Since Bondi assumed the Attorney General post, she has relentlessly targeted prescription pain clinics with extensive, multi-agency, statewide investigations.
Most recently, FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement), the Hollywood Police Department, and the Office of Statewide Prosecution announced the arrests of several Broward and Miami-Dade County pain clinic operators. These operators - several of whom are licensed physicians - have been charged with conspiracy to commit racketeerting and conspiracy to traffic in oxycodone.
Trafficking in oxycodone (OxyContin) can carry up to a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence.
The physicians and operators targeted are accused of selling prescription pain medication to patients without conducting medical examinations.
The problem with Bondi's investigation is that by classifying pain clinics as criminal enterprises, you are putting the legitimate physicians and pain clinic operators at risk of false arrest. While there are no doubt shady doctors out there, not all pain clinics are havens for drug traffickers.
If you or a loved one are facing prescription drug trafficking charges and require the assistance of a Miami trafficking attorney or Broward trafficking attorney, call me.