With prescription medication abuse becoming a problem of epidemic proportions a solution has to be found soon. I have attended numerous conferences and seminars where we discussed what education and legal remedies could slow down this problem. The consensus is that a combination of drug classes and counseling, with greater legal and political enforcement will be the answer.
Kentucky is trying to legal path by cracking down on doctors who overprescribe pain medications.
Kentucky legislators are going after the doctors who act as “pill mills.” I for one think this is a great first step. It is an initiative that all states should implement. Harsh penalities for doctors, including jail sentences will keep them from just trying to get the easy buck with prescriptions.
These drug-dealing doctors are no better than dealers selling marijuana and cocaine.
They are attempting to set up a program to identify suspicious prescribing activity.
Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for some age groups in Kentucky, where 16.1 percent of adults ages 18 to 25 have used prescription drugs for non-prescribed purposes, according to federal drug-abuse statistics. Kentucky residents have a slightly higher prescription abuse rate with 6.5 percent of all Kentuckians having abused prescription drugs, compared to the national average of 5 percent.
They also are advising the board to take data provided by the state's Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system, known as KASPER, which tracks scheduled narcotics, and going after doctors who overprescribe pain medications. The board has countered that the data it gets from KASPER does not provide enough detailed information to determine whether a doctor is overprescribing.
One of the key problems with Kentucky’s prescription medication data board, KASPER, is that less than 25 percent of physicians use it. The state must make it mandatory that if you are going to prescribe medication, you must submit the information to KASPER.
He said another push was likely to license and regulate pain clinics. Previous attempts have failed in the legislature.