The Sunshine State: a popular place to doctor shop

Drug trafficking and pill shopping becoming a major problem here in the sunshine state. We get to the bottom of what's being done to put a stop to it.

An addicts dream: Oxycodone pills. Many will go to great lengths to get them. Martin County Sheriff's Office Lt., William Curry, says, "Many drive 12, 15, 18 hours. Then, spend a day doctor shopping." Lt. Curry with Martin County's Special Investigation Unit says his men and woman are stopping more and more out of state residents who head to Florida to get their fix, "They go down, get them, they come back north, we stop them going north and southbound." The reason: our state's lax laws. State Representative, William Snyder, says, "People are streaming into Florida to get to these pain clinics and to go around their respective state laws to go home with the narcotics." State Representative Snyder says this is a national embarrassment. Out of state residents flooding Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties taking their legal prescription from pain clinic to pain clinic. They cash in on thousands of prescription drugs, most of the time heading back north to sell them. They drive through areas like Martin County where deputies are ready to pull over those violating traffic laws. Most of the out of state drivers, those from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, admit to why there are here, "Some folks tell you going because can't get them in our state," says Lt. Curry. If they make it home, their state ready to arrest if they try to sell the drugs. Everyone we talked to calls this an epidemic, and hopes something changes fast. Lt. Curry says, "I don't know if there is an easy answer. It would be beneficial if the laws were stricter." The Martin County Sheriff's Office says this is not just a problem in their county, but a problem across florida.

Representative Snyder says he is fighting hard in the House to make Florida's laws more strict. He says right now there is one law on the books to track prescription pain pills, but it doesn't go into affect until next year.