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States Told to Monitor
Drug Prescriptions
The head of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Asa Hutchinson, is
calling for all 50 states to establish programs to track prescriptions of
schedule II drugs.
This
story appears in the April 22 - 29, 2002 issue of the American Medical News,
reporting on the National Association of Attorneys General meeting. On
March 22, DEA administrator, Asa Hutchinson spoke and urged the leading
legal officers of each state to consider instituting monitoring programs in
their home jurisdictions. Presently 18 states have already initiated some
type of prescription-monitoring program.
To put their money where
their federal mouth is, the
U.S.
Department of Justice has set aside $2 million in grant money to help states
set up their own programs. This move has come about because of, what the
story describes as the "epidemic" of pain medication prescriptions,
especially the popular drug OxyContin.
Some MD's are very leery of
this new intrusion into their prescribing habits. Dr. Clark, assistant
professor of philosophy at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., voiced his
concerns by saying, "Any time we sense a third party looking over the
shoulders of our doctors, and especially when that third party is the long
arm of governmental authority, we feel our right to confidentiality is
threatened and subject to the possibility of compromise."
In an opinion from the
pro-side of this issue, William Douglass, executive director of the West
Virginia Board of Pharmacy states "If they do their job to verify the
legitimate need for [the prescription] and do a good job of monitoring their
patient's pain management, they should have no fear of repercussion. If they
don't do their job and are writing prescriptions like candy, they should
have fear because this program can pinpoint it."
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