Parish Council expected to renew pain clinic moratorium

The Parish Council on Thursday is expected to once again renew a six-month moratorium that halts pain clinics from opening.

The moratorium, designed to battle “pill mills” sometimes known for dolling out hundreds of prescriptions with little to no consultation, started in 2005 and has been renewed every six months since.

“I’m never going to stop the fight,” said Parish Councilman Jerry Binder, who sponsored the moratorium. “I don’t want to turn over our district to drugs and thugs. We need to be on guard.”

The moratorium began in 2005 when FBI and DEA agents raided several pain management clinics in and around St. Tammany, with owners accused of writing prescriptions for addictive painkillers, muscle relaxers and other medication in turn for millions of dollars in profit. In some cases doctors would write several prescriptions at once to a roomful of patients.

The clinics were so popular, carloads of residents from as far away as Tennessee and Florida filled parking lots of at least four pain clinics raided in the Slidell area.

At that time, overdose deaths from prescription medications doubled from 29 to 56 over three years, according to the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office.

“The lesson we learned from that is we don’t need shady pain clinics in St. Tammany,” Binder said. “A 15-second evaluation creates an addict, then the possibility of taking half those pills to the street creates problems for law enforcement and even more addicts.”

Other items expected to go before the Parish Council include:

• Mosquito Abatement District 2, a taxing body that sprays and combats mosquitoes in St. Tammany, will likely change its name to St. Tammany Parish Mosquito Abatement District.

• Cox Sports Television Vice President Rod Mickler will update Parish Council members on negotiations surrounding the channel that airs New Orleans Hornets, LSU and other sports programming. A financial disagreement between CST and cable company Charter Communications fizzled earlier this year, leaving Northshore residents in a blackout, unable to watch the Hornets as the team chases a playoff bid. Meanwhile, home game attendance slipped, questioning whether owner George Shinn would keep the team in New Orleans.