Hillman said the State Pharmacy Board had approved his request for a license, but the DEA had disapproved it, leading to today’s hearing.
A vocal opponent of Hillman’s planned pharmacy has been Piketon Mayor Billy Spencer, who will also attend today’s hearing.
“My message is to dispute his message that it is a needed thing in the community,” Spencer said. “We’ve got six pharmacies within six miles of that location (727 Second St., PIketon). There’s 27,000 people in Pike County, and we have a pharmacy for every 4,600 citizens right now. And for him (Hillman), one of his arguments is the booming atomic plant. Well, that looks like a bust. There is no booming atomic plant right now. So his argument doesn’t carry any weight. And besides that fact, if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s probably a duck. I think Mr. Hillman’s record stands for itself.”
Hillman said rumors that the pharmacy was being opened simply to serve pain clinics isn’t true. But at the open house, one of the faces most familiar to him, that of Portsmouth Health Department nurse Lisa Roberts, will also be in the hearing room today.
“I just kind of want to go watch,” Roberts said. “I know that they are using a lot of the stuff we put together here statistic-wise, and I just like to see our hard work put to good use.”
Pain clinics have faced the recent hurdle of House Bill 93, which regulates such facilities. Locally, no pain clinics are in operation in Portsmouth now. One of the former pain clinics has been turned into a family practice. Tracy Bias, who operate the former pain clinic on Findlay Street, has reopened as a family practice and says Dr. Sunil Nayyar has signed on to be the physician in that facility. Nayyar had a short stint as a physician at one of Bias’ pain clinics on 11th Street earlier this year.
FRANK LEWIS may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or flewis@heartlandpublications.com
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