ILLEGAL CLINICS: Orange County Plots Strategy
Top officials in Orange County met yesterday to "start putting together a task force aimed at busting and closing illegal back- room medical clinics" following the death of a toddler last week at an unlicensed clinic, the Los Angeles Times reports. However, officials said it would take several weeks until the task force was operational. "What we don't want to do is to send police officers on a sweep of the Hispanic community. We want to get the information out that there are free clinics out there," said Supervisor Charles Smith. The task force will be modeled after a Los Angeles County task force that has been in operation since September in response to the death of a Santa Ana toddler in April (Reyes, 3/5). Yesterday the Los Angeles task force raided an illegal Van Nuys pharmacy and seized about $1 million in prescription medications and drugs that are banned for sale in the U.S. Gregory Thompson, a county Department of Health Services pharmacist, said the store had "enough drugs to stock a Thrify or a Save-on" (Shuit, Los Angeles Times, 3/5).
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