Prescription Drug Abuse: Governors To Develop Best Practices For States

Gov. John Hickenlooper

The nation's governors have begun studying prescription drug abuse and plan to develop best practices that can be used by state governments.

The National Governors Association this week said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) would co-chair the association's new prescription drug academy to develop ways states can reduce prescription abuse nationally. The program resulted from discussion among state chief executives about what they see as a growing issue that involves health and criminal justice policy, governors association officials said.

Krista Drobac, the association's health division director, said the group plans to work with seven states -- Colorado, Alabama and five others chosen in a competitive bidding process -- in the first year to develop policies and procedures. The five additional states will be chosen by an independent panel after governors submit bids to enter the process. Colorado and Alabama were picked after governors looked for co-chairs from both parties representing different regions of the country.

"The states will hear from experts in the field," Drobac said. "They will also meet with each other to devise an action plan for their states."

Drobac said the seven states will have field visits from a National Governors Association policy team, which will include representatives from companies funding the program. During these visits, the team will work with governors' offices along with state health and criminal justice officials. There will be meetings for all seven states to work together. Bentley and Hickenlooper plan to attend all joint meetings, Drobac said.

Drobac said the association plans to look at prescription drug abuse from perspectives that include medical, addiction, criminal justice and economic. She said the issue includes trying to end addiction, along with robberies of pharmacies. She said the economic perspective shows a real problem as well.

"They are diverting pills in the supply chain," Drobac said.

Among issues likely to be tackled are pill mills and doctor shopping for prescriptions. Drobac said the goal is for a comprehensive strategy tackling all aspects of the issue. The findings from the states will be included on governors association web page with case studies on the seven states. She said the study team plans to analyze the impact of the program at the end of a year and then begin the process with seven additional states.

"The abuse of prescription drugs is growing and can now be seen in communities of all sizes throughout our country," Hickenlooper said in a statement issued by governors association. "This is a serious problem that is claiming far too many victims. We look forward to working with Gov. Bentley and the National Governors Association to create strategies that will help states deal with this issue."

Comments

[stevebeast]

08:13 PM on 04/01/2012

yeah thats the big problem in denver i know everyone is very worried about this, thanks now we can all sleep easy again knowing everone on painkillers is suffering the proper amount of pain.

[pinetrale]

12:38 PM on 03/31/2012

The easiest way to put the doctors minds at rest would be a single data base they can access and the pharmacies should have one also. Unfortunately the way it is now with all the doctor shopping a doctor or pharmacy could get in a lot of legal trouble with the state or dea so easily. The dea requires all doctors have a federal dea license ot prescribe any controlled substance and that has made everyone very conservative and just not want to prescribe. They are monitored on the number of scripts by the government way too closely for their comfort level. Now with the state's getting more involved and prosecuting more it will just get worse. Its your government at work for you in an expansion of the war on drugs that is causing this.

[stargazer13]

02:20 PM on 03/30/2012

Start with doctors whose patients have become addicted

then when Patients bring up there worries to Doctor about being addicted

Doctors Drop them Like Hot Potatoes

[Patriot86]

09:25 AM on 03/30/2012

Great my sis already has trouble getting her pain medication for arthritis...yet these yanoos want to make it worse. Those who choose to abuse will always find a way but this hurts average people...my doctor refused to do the paperwork so now does not manage pain.

[stargazer13]

02:26 PM on 03/30/2012

I feel ya !

they are to quick to label people with chronic on going pain as drug seekers

[Patriot86]

03:35 PM on 03/30/2012

I know it...ridiculous...the puritan mindset of lately.

[maconmo]

09:00 AM on 03/30/2012

Their answer will probably be more for profit prisons. That way big pharma can make the money selling the drugs, doctors can make a profit prescribing the drugs, the crime the new addicts commit will require more police, lawyers will make money defending them, the prisons will profit incarcerating the people. Only in Amerca.

[SoCalDoc]

11:51 PM on 03/31/2012

I frequently run into comments like this one about how doctors get big kick-backs from the pharmaceutical companies for prescribing drugs. I have been practicing medicine for over three decades and have never run across this. And your concerns about the pharmaceutical industry lining the pockets of doctors will soon be put to rest as within the next year the Sunshine Law takes effect. This initially was proposed as a bill by Senator Charles Grassley(R-IA) over ten years ago and was incorporated into the Affordable Care Act. This law will require the pharmaceutical industry and biomedical device industry to report on a website any exchange of money or property between a pharmaceutical firm or biomedical device firm and a doctor that is greater than ten dollars(yes, $10.00). So it will all be out in the open and your suspicions and Chuck's suspicions will be put to rest.

[maconmo]

08:57 AM on 04/01/2012

The profits I was inferring to for doctors was their office visit charge. My with manages an office of 4 heart surgeons; they are more concerned about student loans and malpractice insurance.

[stevebeast]

08:20 PM on 04/01/2012

either way many doctors make thier living signing their name. nice racket being the gatekeeper to any medicine you may need. i know i just paid my doctor 65.00 for less than a minute of his time and his signature. you think for a second that puting antibiotics over the counter wouldnt cost you anything? in fact i would bet you would have a lot of time off if adults didnt need your signature at the pharmacy.

[patman77]

08:55 AM on 03/30/2012

as soon as we get the rx computers linked nationwide to help stem the over rxing of painmeds. the flow of high grade H will come flowing in from soldiers facing joblessness on release and cia type couriers will transport tons from afganistan, just like the days after nam when nixon legalized methadone clinics due to hugh habits and tons of h hitting our streets.

[patman77]

08:50 AM on 03/30/2012

if the aca makes it past scotus. all records will be linked nationwide with computer rx records. stopping large flow from dr. shopping across state lines. even fla. whose gov. prefers to drug screen the less fortunate would have to get linked, which they and georgia have not yet done due to heavy money from big pharma hitting their coffers.

[84pininfarina]

08:28 AM on 03/30/2012

When a substance exists that makes a person feel good, some people will attempt to get it. Opiates have been used for many centuries. Perhaps a state database may be helpful in weeding out the doctor shoppers. I have privacy concerns about that, however. Prior to the early 1900s, virtually all opiates were legal and readily available. One could even order it from Sears Roebuck.

I truly believe that legalization of virtually all mood elevating drugs would not make matters in this country worse. As stated earlier, this was the case until approximately 1904. Some people will get addicted and dependant on them, but most people will not. Most people are not alcoholics, most people are not drug addicts. As long as the addict has ready, easy access to their favorite drug, really, what difference does it make? I believe crime/robberies would greatly diminish. Methadone maintenance programs are an example of strong opiates available relatively easily and cheaply that allows the addict to stabilize his/her life.

I also believe legalization of drugs won't happen. There are too many people that insist on telling others how to live their lives.

There is one thing I am firmly against. I do not want any politician and/or government agency dictating what legal drugs a doctor can prescribe to his/her patient. Narcotics are a potent pain relief medication. Those people who have pain should not be punished because some people use narcotics for recreation.

[sdsteve]

08:25 AM on 03/30/2012

A problem ignored by many is the long term pain sufferer. These people are treated like criminals. Their only goal in life becomes trying to maximize the time they spend without the gripping pain that they live with 24/7. As they become more and more opiate tolerant, it takes more and more pain meds to give them some refief. It is a downward spiral that ends in an eventual lethal dose. Those of us who have never experienced long term pain have no idea what it's like. Pain levels are impossible to communicate to another person. Those of us who care for a person in this situation understand the anguish they go through.

[armywifee]

08:11 AM on 03/30/2012

I realize everyone has a different tolerance to pain. I've been prescribed vicodin every time for the most minor stuff imaginable--nothing a couple of over the counter advils couldn't take care of. I always turn the vicodin or any other prescription pain med down--they make me ill anyways. But being prescribed as often as they are for relatively minor stuff I can see how people could end up with a problem.

[modelaford]

06:56 AM on 03/30/2012

Just don't take them away from people who have severe chronic pain and need them.

If they would implement a national computer system to prevent people from buying thousand of them from dozens of doctors, that would help.

But don't penalize the people who really need them.

I can't believe how easy it is for some people to get them from many doctors with no need.

Yet, people like me who have chronic migraines have a terrible time getting them.
We are made to feel like criminals, even though we have had dozens of mris, tests, etc.

I know people who have such severe MS and fibromyalgia pain, they can barely tolerate their days without pain killers and they are made to feel like criminals. Yet others with small booboos, get them from some doctors with absolutely no trouble at all.

Punish the drug pushers who buy them and sell them. And the doctors that prescribe thousands and thousands unnecessarily.

But don't punish the patients who really need them.

If you have ever watched someone die from bone cancer, which is the most painful.
You would never deny them the pain pills they need just to get through the days they have left.

Use common sense.

[beckola]

08:29 AM on 03/30/2012

Your post is very good and imparts "common sense."

My niece suffers from fibromyalgia, and when she moved to my area, I accompanied her to doctors' visits and heard them suggest a dozen other tests in lieu of giving her a prescription for her pain. One doctor relented and gave her a prescription for twelve pills. She had medical reports showing her diagnosis and treatments. She hates taking pain medication because it clouds her mind or makes her sick, but the alternative is to live with terrible pain. We went to specialists (four doctors in all) and until we got to a rheumatologist with compassion, she didn't get an adequate prescription to address her pain.

So I don't understand how someone like her with diagnosis in hand can have such a hard time getting what she needed, but others can walk into pain clinics and walk out with prescriptions for hundreds of pills. Punishment is already under way for those who really need relief from pain. Like anything, abusers cause the problem and then others suffer--and with this new focus on it, the pull back of pain medication prescriptions will only escalate.

[Juan Carlos Mescalero]

06:50 AM on 03/30/2012

Screw jobs and infrastructure, how about another feel good moment that will only cause chronic pain sufferers to be in more pain? What a joke.

[dragger201]

07:01 AM on 03/30/2012

Yep, more "bread and circuses"............

[Mensch99]

06:42 AM on 03/30/2012

I take my disabled neighbor to a pain-management clinic because his doctor can no longer prescribe pain meds. He is subject to be called for a drug test on 24 hours notice and is treated as a criminal because of his chronic pain. The solution to medical problems like addiction is not to create another class of criminals.

[efell]

06:41 AM on 03/30/2012

Here's a plan. Tell doctors to stop prescribing drugs to everyone that comes into their offices with a booboo. Boy that was a head scratcher.

[WhatDaBleep]

06:33 AM on 03/30/2012

Governors are pushing against prescription drug abuse and drug companies are pushing for it. Who do you think will win?