Legislation Addresses Rx Drug Abuse

“Everywhere I’ve gone in the last seven to eight months I have come across a parent, a child, a friend, a relative of somebody who has suffered from prescription drug overdose and unfortunately a great many cases have resulted in death,” said Rep. John Keenan, co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Keenan’s committee voted on October 27, 2011 to recommend to the House and Senate the passage of a comprehensive bill that will require doctors to use a prescription monitoring program. The bill will also require their opioid prescribing practices to be reviewed by state health officials. The idea is to stop people from shopping at several doctors to get multiple prescriptions which they are not really using for their own benefit.

Doctors and hospitals would also be required to notify the parents of minors under 18 who have been treated for drug or alcohol overdoses. And prescriptions for controlled substances must be written on a “tamper resistant” form. Pharmacists can also review customers’ prescription histories before dispensing controlled substances. It would also forbid them from filling prescriptions from doctors in states that do not border theirs.

When prescription drug deaths surpass those of car accidents (50 per month just from Percocet, OxyContin and Vicodin ,) it is certainly time to do something about this threat to the public health.

Recently a survey was made of parents, done by the Parnership at DrugFree.org. It was surprising to realize that 45% reported taking pain meds to self-treat conditions. 14% reported that they would give these medications to their children without a prescription. Worst of all, perhaps, was that 60% of these parents were not aware that the active ingredient in pain killers is a drug that is similar to heroin. Only ten years ago, the discussions were about heroin and crack, not prescription drugs.

Other sections of the bill deal with expanding drug courts to a 90 day program so that they will be more successful. Getting off of any drug takes time. Another section deals with a “Good Samaritan” law that would grant limited immunity from drug possession charges for the person who calls for help. Oftentimes people have died because the person who was with them was too afraid of being arrested and thus didn’t call for help soon enough.