S. Ind. city seeks to tighten pain clinic rules

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) -- A southern Indiana city is seeking to impose restrictions on pain-management clinics amid concerns the clinics bring traffic and parking woes and can become a source of prescription medications for drug abusers.

The revised zoning ordinance being considered by the New Albany City Council would bar pain clinics from opening less than 500 feet from a residentially zoned district and less than 1,000 feet from other pain clinics.

The council was scheduled to meet Monday night to discuss the proposal, which comes after residents in the neighboring Ohio River city of Jeffersonville protested in August when a pain clinic opened there, arousing concerns that it would bring prescription medication fraud.

Some Jeffersonville residents said that clinic was drawing out-of-state clients and serving too many people after Kentucky passed stricter rules for such clinics.

New Albany Councilman Scott Blair told the News and Tribune (http://bit.ly/TZYa1L ) for a Monday story that he is sponsoring the changes primarily due to concerns about the parking and traffic troubles the clinics can cause.

"What we're trying to do is just be proactive and trying to discourage or at least isolate somebody who wants to run one of these prescription drug operations," Blair said. "They've legislated them out of Kentucky, so now they're looking to operate in southern Indiana."

New Albany's proposed zoning changes would specify that a pain-management clinic is a place where "the majority of patients at the facility are prescribed controlled substances or other drugs." Clinics operated by public or private hospitals would be exempt from the definition.

New Albany Plan Commission Director Scott Wood said the commission was asked by the council to consider an ordinance that would create "a definition that's in line with the state definition of pain management clinics."

Blair said his measure is a temporary solution until Indiana lawmakers take action.

State Sen. Ron Grooms, R-Jeffersonville, and state Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville, have said they plan to address the issue next session in response to concerns that some clinics are a source of prescription medications for drug abusers.
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Information from: News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind., http://www.newsandtribune.com