Despite budget woes, Pasco County hires new employees to fight prescription drug abuse

In an encouraging step in the fight to stop Florida’s prescription drug epidemic, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco has received approval from the Pasco Board of County Commissioners to hire 23 new employees, each of whom will be dedicated to fighting prescription drug abuse.

The sheriff will be putting together More…

Florida Medical Association supports program that curbs illegal selling of prescription drugs

The Florida Medical Association has responded to a letter sent by state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, encouraging state medical groups to use a newly implemented prescription drug monitoring database (aka E-FORCSE). In a letter written yesterday, the Association Executive Vice President Timothy Stapleton writes that his More…

Osteopathic Medical Association endorses Florida drug monitoring database

Responding to a letter from state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, imploring Florida medical associations to encourage doctors to use the state’s new prescription drug monitoring database, Florida Osteopathic Medical Association Executive Director Stephen Winn says that the Association “agrees that we should encourage all physicians to More…

Pill mills in Florida seek new licenses as state plans to roll out drug monitoring database

A recent surge in pharmacy applications in the state of Florida could spell trouble for the state’s notorious prescription drug problem. A recently implemented prescription drug monitoring database (also known as E-FORCSE) was put in place to monitor doctor-shopping and to hopefully crack down on so-called “pill mills,” which have More…

How Florida lost its prison health care watchdog agency

In January 2007, a woman was diagnosed with vulvar cancer while she was held in a Florida jail. The doctors had scheduled a follow-up evaluation, but she did not receive treatment before she was transfered to Broward Correctional Institution. #

Florida state senator asks county to take a stand on controversial landfill

This morning, the Pasco County Board of Commissioners met to discuss the landfill application of Angelo’s Aggregates — a controversial proposal that was denied in the past and could damage environmentally sensitive lands. State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, spoke to the commission to address his concerns, More…

Database meant to crackdown on pill mills database off schedule by at least two weeks

Though Florida’s 2011 legislative session only recently came to a close, a program that emerged as one of its key successes has fallen behind schedule. #

Contracting delays have thrown the implementation of a prescription drug database intended to aid the state’s crackdown More…

Florida Senate passes version of pill mill legislation

The Florida Senate passed a pill mill bill today, but not without some hurdles. Though they are both in agreement that Florida has a troubling prescription drug overdose problem, state Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, and Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, have long been at odds over how More…

Florida Senate passes bill handing license plate money over to national anti-abortion rights group

State Sen. Mike Fasano’s Senate Bill 196, which would redistribute funds made off of Florida’s “Choose Life” license plates, passed a Senate vote today. The bill will next be voted on by the House before it moves to the governor’s office.

Current law states that funds made off of the More…

Florida senator’s argument favoring elections bill: Voting should not be easy

Republicans who support a massive and controversial elections bill have yet to present evidence of fraud to justify changes that advocacy groups have said would make it more difficult for people — especially young people — to vote. #