'Pill mill' regulations likely to be extended

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The House is poised to give final approval to a bill (SB 450) that would extend regulations placed on pain-management clinics after Florida became a hotbed of prescription-drug abuse and trafficking.

House members took up the bill Tuesday and could vote on it as soon as Wednesday. The Senate has already passed the measure.

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Lawmakers in 2011 approved a wide-ranging law to try to crack down on "pill mills" that popped up throughout the state. But lawmakers included a Jan. 1, 2016, expiration date on clinic regulations.

The bill would eliminate the expiration date, with House sponsor Ross Spano, R-Dover, saying that in the past unregulated pain-management clinics were "spreading like wildfire."