FL lawmakers provide no money for drug-abuse database

TALLAHASSEE – With the clock ticking on the 2013 legislative session, lawmakers will likely adjourn without providing funding for the state's prescription drug database, which law enforcement officials say is a key tool in the fight against prescription drug abuse. There's no money for it in the budget being voted on later this week. And legislation to allow pharmaceutical companies to donate money for its operations has faltered. Unless there's a major change in the next two days, the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Foundation will be left to its own devices to come up with the $500,000 a year needed to keep the database in operation.