By Michael LaForgia Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Feb. 21, 2010 Despite new rules targeting the pain management industry, unscrupulous clinics that supply narcotics traffickers and addicts will keep spreading across Florida unless lawmakers enact tougher restrictions immediately, according to a top state medical official . “It’s been frustrating that it’s taken so long to recognize the [...]

By Michael LaForgia Palm Beach Post Staff Writer March 3, 2010 Twin brothers who styled themselves as mega-rich playboys opened pain clinics in Palm Beach and Broward counties and lined their pockets with money from drug traffickers, federal agents alleged Wednesday. Federal and local authorities on Wednesday raided at least three clinics owned by Chris and Jeff [...]

By Maria Herrera The Sun Sentinel March 1, 2010 Delray Beach City Commissioner Adam Frankel continues to champion the cause of cracking down on “pill mills.” He recently asked City Attorney Brian Shutt to look into requiring any doctor or clinics filling a controlled-substance prescription to submit the patient’s fingerprint. A database would help identify whether a [...]

By SCOTT HIASSEN The Miami Herald April 05, 2009 Broward County has become the painkiller capital of the United States, the notorious home to a cottage industry of storefront pain clinics selling alarming numbers of narcotics and feeding a brazen black market sprawling through the South and New England. In the last six months of [...]

By Bill Dipaolo  Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Monday, March 1, 2010 JUPITER — A moratorium on new pain clinics that dispense powerful prescription drugs such as OxyContin is scheduled for a final town council vote Tuesday night. If approved, applications for new pain clinics will not be considered until the town adopts new regulations for them. Town [...]

By Angel Streeter Sun Sentinel Wednesday, March 10, 2010 BOCA RATON The city is considering a new law regulating pain-management clinics that would essentially ban operations that freely dole out narcotic prescription medications. The city’s proposed new law would prohibit on-site dispensing of prescription drugs in medical, business and professional offices except under special circumstances. The City Council [...]

By Michael LaForgia Palm Beach Post Staff Writer March 6, 2010 Chris and Jeff George drove flashy cars, amassed property and made multi-million-dollar deals, radiating wealth and success while clients of their pain clinics got high and, in some cases, died. Supporting the twin brothers’ lavish lifestyle was a stream of dirty cash from drug traffickers who [...]

By Michael LaForgia Palm Beach Post Staff Writer March 12, 2010 Posted: 12:23 p.m. Friday, March 12, 2010 E-mail Print Share Larger Type Small Type A West Palm Beach pediatrician who authorities say prescribed painkillers to junkies now faces three counts of first-degree murder. Dr. Sergio Rodriguez, who was arrested in 2008 on drug trafficking charges after an intensive Palm Beach County [...]

March 30, 2010 Broward sheriff’s undercover investigators arrested a pain clinic doctor on Saturday night on drug charges after they say they found the doctor carrying oxycodone pills and a liquid form of the drug for which he did not have prescriptions. Officials said Dr. Steven Brown, 45, was about to swallow two 30 milligram oxycodone pills [...]

By Michael LaForgia Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 31, 2010 Palm Beach County Commisioners this morning voted a final time to approve a one-year ban of new pain clinics in the county’s unincorporated areas, giving official approval to a rule-change that essentially took effect in December. Commissioners enacted the moratorium to halt the spread of unscrupulous [...]