HOUSTON -- Local 2 Investigates has uncovered new, inside information into some of Houston's pain clinics. 

A former dealer confirms what we've been exposing for more than two years -- so-called patients can go from clinic to clinic, never see a doctor, and walk away with hundreds of prescription pills visit after visit. 

"They're basically legalized drug dealers," said Mike, an inmate serving jail time in Louisiana. "As long as you got the cash to pay, you can keep going until you drop dead." 

Mike knows the clinic system all too well. He said he used to join vanloads of users who crossed the border into Texas and headed straight for Houston pain clinics. He said scoring prescription drugs was as easy as photocopying one medical record. 

"You use some legitimate records," Mike explained. "Make some copies of them. Change out the names and the little detail numbers in it and go Houston and hit the doctors." 

The goal was to walk away with hundreds of pills in the pain clinic cocktail -- pain reliever Hydrocodone, anxiety drug Xanax, and muscle relaxer Soma. It's a combination that can cause euphoria, but many times ends up in a coma or even death. 

Mike said the so-called patients would use some of the pills and then sold the rest on the street. The van organizer would take half of each person's prescription stash as payment for the trip. 

"I was going to seven or eight doctors a month," Mike said. "And you see all the same people at all the doctors." 

When Local 2 Investigates went into Houston pain clinics, our hidden cameras often saw advertising fliers for competing clinics in the waiting room. Mike said it's all part of the system to go to clinic after clinic and add to your stash of drugs. 

"It's like a big social club. You know, you talk to the people. Oh, you know, you heard about this doctor that opened down the street. You exchange information in the waiting room." 

So why are people from Louisiana coming to Houston clinics? Louisiana toughened up their laws regulating clinics and many of them closed. The market moved to Texas and Houston became the market leader. 

"It is a wave of crime, and this is the source of that crime," said State Sen. Tommy Williams, a lawmaker from The Woodlands. 

Williams said he became aware of the problem after one of his constituent's told him the story of her son's overdose after visiting pain clinics. 

Local 2 Investigates talked with emergency room doctors at Conroe Regional Medical Center who said they now see more overdoses on prescription drugs than street drugs. The doctors told us it's all because patients can easily get large number of prescription pills and then use them in the same deadly combination. 

Williams believes tougher Texas laws would help curb the clinic problem. He's proposed three different bills -- senate bills 911, 912, and 1281. They are being considered by lawmakers in Austin. Williams said the first step is making pain clinics sign up with the state so everyone knows where they are located. 

"All we're really asking is to make them (the clinics) register," Williams explained. "And to make sure there's a doctor who sees the patients at least a third of the time -- it's not just a physicians assistant. And it should be owned by a licensed doctor."

 Add on another bill that would make it illegal for patients to "doctor shop" and hit clinic after clinic, and Williams' hope is that tougher rules will shut the current clinic system down. 

"A few bad actors are giving a lot of people a bad name as it's set up right now," he said. 

The Texas Pain Society, an organization of pain management doctors, has come out against the proposed laws. A doctor representing the group told us there is enough power in current laws to shut down illegal clinics. The group believes registering clinics would only punish legitimate doctors. 

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