States told to monitor drug orders

The head of the DEA is calling for all 50 states to establish programs to track prescriptions of schedule II drugs.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. April 22/29, 2002.

OxyContin abuse has reached epidemic proportions in some parts of the nation, and doctors who treat patients with chronic pain are hoping the government's "cure" won't be worse than the disease.

Monitoring prescriptions of the popular painkiller and other schedule II drugs has become the government's favored treatment for combating diversion and abuse. And when U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Asa Hutchinson spoke at the National Assn. of Attorneys General meeting on March 22, he urged the leading legal officers of each state to consider instituting monitoring programs in their home jurisdictions.

To date, 18 states have initiated some type of prescription-monitoring program. Hutchinson would like to see more. To further the cause, he said the U.S. Dept. of Justice has set aside $2 million in grant money to help states set up their own programs.

Some physicians, particularly those who treat patients with chronic pain, are wary.

"The net effect is that it creates a barrier," said Fred N. Davis, MD, president of a pain-management practice with 100,000 patients in Michigan and Indiana. "I can't tell you how much it prevents OxyContin from getting into the hands of the wrong people, but I can tell you it does prevent getting [it] ... into the hands of the people who need it.

"No one is against monitoring the usage of these medications and keeping them out of the hands of the wrong people," he added. "But are we doing it the right way, and are we doing it in a way that causes more benefits than harm?" [...]