AHS Views

Now that more people in Kentucky are dying from prescription drug abuse and addiction than from car wrecks, lawmakers and a lot of other people are desperate to find ways to get the situation under control. Having more addiction help facilities and treatment programs available is one very good thing, but there’s a lot more to be done.

For example, one of the major problems we have to get a handle on is helping doctors figure out who is getting prescriptions from them just to get high or to sell the drugs to others. It will also tell them about patients who have a legitimate reason for being on a drug, but have been now taking it for far too long. They need to stop either because they’re already addicted, or they will become addicted very soon. A good example of this is people who started taking OxyContin and other painkillers after surgery, an injury, etc. They get hooked on the drug and are still taking it despite the fact that they no longer really need it for that injury. In other words, they are now dealing with OxyContin addiction.

To help in this, a bill was just passed requiring that all doctors use the prescription drug monitoring system – an electronic database hooked up to other doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, out-patient clinics and anywhere else a person could get prescription drugs legally. When the doctors check this database, they can see which patients have been getting which drugs from whom and how often. Along with examining and speaking with the patient, they can use this info to determine whether or not the patient really needs the drug for medical reasons – other than addiction.

Part of the bill also put this database into the hands of the attorney-generals office so they could also use it to monitor doctors who are over-prescribing. Hard to believe, but it’s true, that unethical doctors are one of the big problems leading to prescription drug addiction.

That part of the bill was not passed, however, maybe just the fact that the unethical doctors are in this database and that other doctors, as well as pharmacists, hospital staff, nurses, and so on, are going to be digging into the database as they treat patients, will be enough to make them back off a little.

In any case, at least using the prescription drug monitoring system will help some.

This might not seem like great news for those who are hooked on prescription drugs but, in fact, it is. With people dying from these drugs left, right and center, anything that can help get you off them
is good.

Florida has the biggest prescription drug abuse problem in the country. Despite that, it does not have a prescription drug monitoring system that will help isolate those getting prescriptions for the purpose of reselling the drugs to others. The monitoring program could put dealers out of business and, for those who are dealing to support their own habit, it may open the door to them getting some addiction help.

Florida was on the brink of implementing the system when Rick Scott, Florida’s new governor was elected. He got in by the narrowest margin in a Florida election in 24 years, and his approval rating has sank so much in just the few months he’s been in office that there’s no chance at all that he would be elected if voters had to do it over again. One of the reasons is that he vetoed the prescription drug monitoring plan.

He first said it was because of the expense. Then, after it was confirmed that NOT ONE CENT of the money would come out of the state’s coffers, he changed his tune and said he’d vetoed it because monitoring people’s prescription drug habits was an invasion of privacy.

It has since come to light that he’s an investor in a chain of about 40 pill mills, whoops, sorry, that’s ‘pain management clinics’, which are a major source of the problem.

Other politicians, lawmakers and the general public are incensed. I’m sure the thousands of Floridians whose family members and friends have been turned into addicts and, worse, overdosed on prescription painkillers and are now in their graves, would like to see him out of office.

Being an owner of pills mills, Scott can pretty much be designated a drug dealer at this point – add that to his other many stellar qualities. He’s obviously just protecting what is probably a very lucrative source of personal income.

Again, prescription drugs, especially painkillers, are a huge problem. Purdue, makers of OxyContin, said that 95% of their business is done in Florida. The company even offered to pay the $ million it would take to implement the system – read ‘public relations’ – trying to make themselves look like the good guys, after having paid out $642 million in fines for their fraudulent marketing of OxyContin – not a sincere desire to sell fewer pills.

Prescription drug abuse is becoming an even bigger problem than street drugs. In fact, in some areas of the country, it’s much worse.

Push for prescription drug monitoring in any way you can and, most importantly for your personal life, don’t hesitate to get any friends and family you suspect may be addicted to painkillers into a drug rehab program asap. Before they become one of the statistics.