The non medical usage of the prescription drug abuse is higher than the abuse of cocaine and other such hallucinogens. According to a report from Oregon Department 228,000 Oregonians are abused to prescription drug abuse annually. According to report and statistics of Oregon people don’t view prescription drug as a dangerous or potentially dangerous addictive like heroin, cocaine or meth.
The survey by researchers said that 13% of Oregonians between ages 18 to 25 are addicted to prescription drug abuse while 8% between 12-17 years of age are addicted to drug abuse. Many researchers also found that out of 10 teens nearly 3 of them believed that prescription pain relievers are not addictive.
Pain relievers are by far the most abused prescription drug which majority of people don’t understand. In United States as of 2004 the consumption of hydrocodone supply was 99 percent which was a choice of teens after marijuana.
The consumption of Methadone is also high which is leading to a large no of deaths. The death toll for this drug has increased by 500 percent since 2000. Methadone is perhaps best known for it’s use in drug treatment till 70’s but is today primarily considered a painkiller. Methadone requires a longer time for its effect to get reduced in the body. Even if a person doesn’t feel its effect, it is still present in the body in significant quantities.
Although organized drug rings are moving out of traffic and distribution of prescription drugs, many drug addicts go to different doctors to obtain painkillers called as doctor shopping.
On seeing such a condition the Oregon legislation has passed a Senate Bill 355 which directs to establish a prescription drug monitoring program. This law requires that medical practitioner and pharmacists enter into database the name of the patient , their address, date of birth and quantity of Schedule 2 to 4 drugs prescribed.
On checking out the database the doctors can easily make out whether a person is receiving multiple prescriptions. But this law doesn’t require to check on patient’s prescription history before prescribing or dispensing the drug.
This database works in 2 ways:
Firstly it a valuable tool so doctors don’t get the chance to do fraud for prescribing medications to their patients. Secondly it gives doctors a high level of comfort in prescribing pain medications. This initial version of this law has undergone several revisions in response to criticism of bill, much of it from opponents of privacy and civil liberties.
This program would be monitored by an 11 member commission consisting of nine medical professionals and two members of the public, one of which would be an expert in information technology and would monitor the program.
But the major problem with this database is its not secured and protected. In an earlier experiment in Virginia, a hacker stole around 3.5 million patient records from state’s prescription monitoring database. So this is a major concern wherein if the system is compromised upon patients could end up being denied of medications.
This prescription drug abuse program is just one of the 6 components recommended by DHS to fight prescription drug abuse.
The other 5 are:
•Training health care professionals about prescription drug addiction.
•Checking that prescription drugs are being kept in safe from children.
•Educate the general people about the dangers of prescription drugs.
•Treating those to opiates and other drugs.
•Encourage consumers to find out alternatives to prescription pain relievers where proper disposal of unused prescriptions is there.
This legislation bill 355 goes into effect on 1st July 2010. A federal grant will be used for start up costs and the new database launched would be funded by a $25 annual fee paid by practitioners.
Comments
Post a Comment