As part of a crackdown on rampant painkiller abuse in Florida, the Drug Enforcement Administration charged a major health care company and the two CVS pharmacies in Sanford, Fla., with violating their licenses to sell the powerful pain pills and other drugs.
The average pharmacy in the United States ordered about 69,000 oxycodone pills in 2011, the DEA said. The two CVS pharmacies, located less than 6 miles apart, ordered 3 million.
It is the first time the DEA has suspended the license of a chain pharmacy in Florida for its alleged role in the state's prescription drug abuse problem. The DEA had previously targeted pain clinics known as "pill mills" where rogue doctors prescribe thousands of pain pills with only cursory examinations.
On Friday, the DEA suspended Cardinal Health's controlled substances license at its Lakeland, Fla., distribution center after linking it to high-volume orders of pain pills to four Florida pharmacies, including the two in Sanford. The distribution center services 2,500 pharmacies in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
A federal judge temporarily halted the suspension after Cardinal said it would stop supplying the drugs to the four pharmacies.
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