Tampa Criminal Attorney

 

prescription drug abuse tampa

prescription drug abuse tampa

Harsh penalties for drug offenses in Florida are not new. However, what and who have become the target of a drug investigation has changed. The growth of pain–clinics in South Florida has caused the Governor and Florida legislature to enact new laws. A growing crime rate associated with pharmaceutical drugs means that the Tampa and Pinellas police will be tracking who issues prescriptions and who obtains pharmaceutical drugs legally or illegally. Moreover, Tampa and St. Petersburg police have been singling out organizations which have been illegally issuing these suspect prescriptions.

Florida has become known as a pill state because of the growing market for illegal pharmaceutical pain killers. Florida Law enforcement has seen other Counties in the State lose control of the unlawful sale of oxycodone and other types of pain killers. As reported in the St. Petersburg Times, Pinellas county law enforcement worries that the problem could become as bad as it has become in Broward and Dade county. Miami has seen the illegal sale of pharmaceutical drugs eclipse the purchase of cocaine and heroin.

A Tampa criminal lawyer’s view of illegal prescription drugs

In an effort to address this problem, Governor Charlie Crist passed a law last year which requires doctors and pharmacies to keep records of patient prescriptions.

The new law, passed nearly unanimously in the Legislature, will require doctors and pharmacists to record patient prescriptions for most drugs in a state-controlled database. This would allow health-care professionals —and police and regulators, in some circumstances— to detect patients who go to multiple doctors seeking pills, a practice known as doctor shopping.While this law has the potential of helping individuals who have become addicted to pain killers which their doctors prescribe for them it also has the potential of prosecuting those same patients.

Patients Become Victims

Charging someone with a felony for the possession of an illegal pain killer such as oxycodone doesn’t address the source of the problem. Law enforcement has the ability to track the flow of these pain-killers. State attorneys and police, however, prosecute crimes, and that fact creates the possibility of injustice. What kind of injustice? 1) These law enforcement agencies don’t have the means or the directive to assess the entire source of the problem. 2) Some of the people sought in these criminal investigations have unwittingly become addicted to these pain killers. That is a social problem not a criminal court problem. It should be handled through our state’s drug intervention programs.

Prescription drug addiction & criminal charges

Anyone who intentionally uses deception or falsity to obtain a prescription drug, either to profit from it or for recreational purposes, can be charged with obtaining a controlled substance by fraud (also known as prescription fraud).

If you have been charged with a felony or a misdemeanor for the illegal possession of prescription drugs or a forged prescription, my name is William Hanlon, and I am a Tampa criminal lawyer who can help you. I will aggressively defend you against any charges which stem from a prescription drug offense.

8 types of Prescription Drug Fraud

Any doctor and pharmacists who issue a prescription to someone without a legitimate medical condition can also be prosecuted for drug fraud. The following list defines the acts which constitute prescription drug fraud:

  • § altering prescriptions in any way
  • § attempting to fill the same prescription at multiple pharmacies
  • § forging prescriptions
  • § theft of a prescription pad
  • § impersonating a doctor to issue a prescription
  • § impersonating a pharmacist to fill a fraudulent prescription
  • § increasing the dosage of a prescription
  • § using a false name to obtain somebody else’s prescription

I have practiced law in Tampa for over 15 years. I understand how drug laws have changed, and I know how State attorneys prosecute Florida’s Drug laws. I have the invaluable experience it takes to defend anyone against these serious charges. Call me today. I will personally review all the facts and the law with you.

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