Substance Abuse Conference Held

{Lexington, Kentucky}...Kentucky and Florida top prosecutors said Thursday that the pain-pill pipeline from Florida that has brought staggering amounts of prescription drugs to Kentucky is beginning to dry up. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway spoke at Marriott Griffin Gate Hotel in Lexington, appearing together at the Faces of Substance Abuse Conference to talk about their efforts to combat prescription drug abuse in their respective states and how they have worked together to stem the flow of illegal pills. Conway, who said more needs to be done to attack the epidemic of prescription drug abuse in Kentucky, said he expects state lawmakers to introduce a measure next week aimed at cracking down on illegal use of prescription drugs. Authorities found files on 1,400 people, most of them from eastern Kentucky, when they raided one South Florida doctor in May 2010. Conway said that in 2010, police estimated 60 percent of the pills sold on the black market in Kentucky were prescribed in Florida. Since then, Florida officials have made a number of moves aimed at cracking down on the problem, including boosting enforcement, requiring pain clinics to register with the state, barring many clinics from dispensing pills and putting in place a prescription monitoring system.