Lake Worth’s Newest Pain. . .
A steady procession of cars, many of them stained with road salt from their trip from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio and other northern states pull in to 1200 North Dixie Hwy. Business at the newly opened pain clinic is so brisk that two golf carts zip 
around the parking lot, directing cars to open spaces or to the lot across the ally as the main lot becomes full. The owner of a nearby business estimated that more than 2,500 cars visited 1200 North Dixie 
on the day the pain clinic first opened about two weeks ago. In the span of 15 minutes Tom’s Page counted more than 20 cars pulling into 1200 North Dixie and the two men in the golf carts appear to provide “security” for the business as well as directing traffic.
The building is very large and does not display any signage to indicate what type of business it is; but a steady flow of people, some with young children in tow, move quickly in and out. There are so many people visiting the building that traffic often backs up on Dixie Hwy.
Often it is what is allowed to be legal that is the real crime. Palm Beach County has enacted an ordinance prohibiting these types of pain clinics and many 
nearby local municipalities have either already enacted or are in the process of enacting similar laws leaving Lake Worth a sanctuary for those seeking pain killers to use or resell. The profitability of reselling the drugs is illustrated by the willingness of people to drive such long distances to obtain them here in South Florida. It is worth noting that almost without exception every car pulling in to the clinic had at least 3 people in, often many more; each one of the occupants eligible for their own prescription and purchase of pain killers.
The issue of pain clinics such as the one at 1200 North Dixie has been heavily featured in the media for months and City of Lake Worth should have been proactive about prohibiting them here as so many other communities have. Measures must be put in place immediately to prevent more from opening, once they are established here legally it will be all the more difficult to close them down and clean this newest blight from our streets.
Tags: lake worth, Lake Worth Downtown, Lake Worth Florida, Lake Worth politics
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February 11, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Come on Tom give the commissioners and city manager a break. According to Commissioner Jennings they’ve all been very busy fighting crime and blight every day. I can see how they could have missed something as insignificant as a 15,000 square foot drug dispenser opening a few blocks from city hall.
I forget, will this be the 3rd or 4th meeting they will spend 2 hours discussing the palm trees that were moved in Bryant park? At least they have their priorities.
February 12, 2010 at 1:45 pm
It’s really sad that so much effort is put into stopping things that a few people oppose like the parking lot at Bryant Park yet a major pain clinic slips into our city as if it was just another small business. Cara gave Publix such a hard time but the pain clinic was a walk in the park. Something is very wrong with the way this city does business.
February 12, 2010 at 5:11 pm
John
While I am not a proponent of these pill mills, I am not sure what the city could have done to stop a -to date- legal business from operating within legal parameters, within our borders. I am glad that we know that it is their so that we can respond to it presence. However, a qualified, effective enforcement regime based on any illegal practices at this facility will require bona fide investigation, not your indignant vigilantism predicated on narrow personality driven politics.
What is the community standard you would like to codify and enforce? And in regard to what abused substances? Should Lake Worth station officers at the exit of all hospitality venues or public parking lots, breathalyzing exiting patrons to see if they exceed the legal limit for alcohol. Should Lake Worth lead the way, expecting WPB on Clematis, and Del Ray on Atlantic to follow. I am certainly not sure that such an anti-business mentality would be congruent with the southern fried libertarianism I see on display around me daily.
As Tom alludes, all too frequently the crime seems to lay in what is legal -not illegal, in the private and public sectors.
You directly confer blame on the commission for the existence of a business entity, the approval of which never came before the commission for any sort of action. Why do you single out Jennings for your withering defamatory scrutiny. Whither Varela, Maxwell, and PBSO?
These narcotic dispensing industries are not a secret in southeast florida. Dozens and dozens of them advertise and operate with impugnity, and have for years. When an enforcement mechanism brings the force of law to bear upon them, it seems to much more frequently be aimed at the victims of this industry rather than the distributors of the commodity on which its based.
That said, I encourage you and others to organize. Ring this facility with demonstrators armed with signage and trained to respond to inquiries from the media and intimidation from the operators of this perpetual addiction machine. As long as you keep moving you will break no law and you will choke the ingress and egress of victims and mid-tier victimizers; cutting into the volume dependent margin of this -to date legal- enterprise.
Please use this comment thread to keep the community apprised of your organizing activities so that we work together to address this offense to the health and well being of our community, local and national.
The irony of course is that you will find yourself employing a strategy of direct action courageously demonstrated in the past by Commissioner Jennings, at whose feet you pathetically try to lay the blame for this facility.
February 12, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Two things:
Typographic correction: “I am glad that we know that it is their so that we can respond to it presence.” Should read, “I am glad that we know that it is there so that we can respond to its presence.”
Secondly, Ms. Shepherd, any idea how much revenue New Times receives for accepting page after page of advertisements from the pill mills?
February 12, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Great post, Tom. Thanks for keeping on top of this.
February 13, 2010 at 8:50 am
Pietro:
You miss my point completely. All businesses in the City need to get a license from the city. The City Manager and the commission are responsible for the types of business that we allow in our city. Jennings and other commissioners did not make life easy for Publix which they new would open up job opportunities and increase property values and bring in needed tax dollars. I have not heard one bit of opposition from Cara and her commission friends on the Pain Clinic. That tells me a great deal as it appears that stopping Publix was more important than a pain clinic. Jennings is up for re-election and needs to know what the voters think about her record. Perhaps she could organize the protest you refer to. That will never happen because under her agenda keeping Lake Worth poor requires these types of operations.
February 13, 2010 at 9:13 am
It is worth noting that under new business on the agenda for Tuesday’s Commission meeting is a first reading for an ordinance covering a moratorium on the establishment of pain clinics in Lake Worth. It appears to be along the lines of the one the county put in place.
While it is disappointing that our City was not proactive in puting this type of ordinance in place, I don’t feel that blame can be assigned to any one Commissioner or group in the City.
The idea of a protest is appealing, perhaps even better would be a press event across the street from the clinic, with the Mayor and Commission voicing their commitment to prevent any more clinics from opening, and cast a very public spotlight on the 1200 North Dixie Hwy.
February 13, 2010 at 12:40 pm
All you gotta do is, setup a stilt tri-pod during morning rush,throw some eggs on the building, and dump rotten citrus in the waiting room. That would show them!
February 13, 2010 at 9:51 pm
P & Z approved this months ago because it came before them as a “medical facility” which is an approved use.
John probably would have been the first to complain if “Cara’s P & Z” had refused to allow a tax revenue-generating business to open in the city.
February 14, 2010 at 9:36 am
My complaint is simple. No one is watching the store as they are too busy stopping plastic bags. The city’s leadership has some real problems and no answers. A great deal of talk and no action.
February 25, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Wow!!!!!!! You people have alot to learn. You can’t stop a legal business which that is. They treat people in pain so what get a life and worry about why you don’t have any money, maybe its because your to worried about things that don’t effect you like this. To bad your just jealous keep crying you will not make a difference.
February 25, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Thanks for the comment Mike.
Interestingly the info that came with the comment includes an e-mail address that is associated with a Pain Clinic in Palm Beach. The website for “Mike’s” Pain Clinic is virtually identical to the one at 1200 North Dixie and must be related.
So Mike, do you want to fess up? You work for same company. Can I interview you and tour your facility?
Tom