Crackdown in Florida Sends Pain Clinic Business to Georgia

Florida 'Pill Mill' Crackdown Sets Off a Rush to Georgia by Timothy W. Martin.  The Wall Street Journal.  December 25, 2012.

Georgia today is the home of 125 pain clinics, up from fewer than 20 in 2010.  Per capita oxycodone prescriptions have tripled between 2000 and 2010.  In 2010 Florida began a creating strike forces to close illicit pain clinics and track controlled-substances sales, an action that is directly relevant to some of the Georgia increase.  Generally, pain clinics are subject nationally to at best a patchwork system of regulation, or non-regulation.  This article highlights the focus on what is called the USA's No. 1 drug problem, painkillers.