Dear Readers,
Abuse of prescription drugs continues to be a significant problem in the United States, affecting a wide range of the population, including men, women and teens. A recent study by the Substance Abuse and ­Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that emergency room visits involving nonmedical use of prescription narcotic pain relievers more than doubled between 2004 and 2008.

According to the report, three prescription opioid pain relievers were most frequently cited as the cause for hospital emergency department visits during this period: oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone products. Many medical experts and government officials believe that the rate at which these drugs are being prescribed plays a significant role in their overuse and abuse, and are urging appropriate measures for prescribing, usage, storage and disposal.

In a separate report by the CDC, based on the 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), one in five U.S. high school students reported taking a prescription drug without a doctor’s prescription. The YRBS has been conducted every other year since 1991; however, this is the first year the survey assessed prescription drug abuse among high school students. Students from 42 states and 20 large urban school districts were asked if they had ever taken a prescription drug such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, Adderall, Ritalin or Xanax, without a doctor’s prescription. The results of the survey showed that prescription drug abuse was most common among white students (23 percent); followed by Hispanic students (17 percent); and then black students (12 percent). There was no difference in prescription drug abuse by gender (20 percent for both male and female students).

Reacting to reports of more than 26,000 deaths from unintentional drug poisoning in 2006, the CDC released a brief, “Unintentional Drug Poisoning in the United States,” that provides recommendations on how health care providers, private insurance providers and state and federal agencies can work to prevent unintentional drug overdoses.

Some lawmakers are doing what they can to combat prescription drug abuse in their own states, including Florida, where deaths related to prescription drug use have soared in recent years—from 2,780 in 2006; to 3,317 in 2007; and 3,750 in 2008. South Florida in ­particular has become infamous for its so-called “pill mills,” that dispense pain pills—mainly prescription oxycodone. The problem with the pill mills, according to state lawmakers, is that because they dispense medication onsite and there is no tracking system to prevent patients fromimmediately obtaining multiple prescriptions, one person can essentially go pill shopping at several of these places and obtain huge quantities of these controlled substances.
A report by a Broward County state attorney noted that the nation’s top 25 oxycodone-dispensing doctors were all in Florida; 18 of them in Broward County, which has 155 registered pain clinics. According to Bruce Grant, director of Florida’s Office of Drug Control, people travel from as far as Tennessee and Kentucky to visit these pain clinics, and the easy availability of these drugs has resulted in what he referred to as “an unprecedented amount of drug ­trafficking.”

In June, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed legislation (Senate Bill 2272) that aims to make it harder for these clinics to dispense these drugs so carelessly, and limits the quantity that can be obtained by patients. Lawmakers are quick to note that this law is not meant to punish reputable physicians and pain management clinics. Much of the legislation builds on the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which authorizes the Florida Department of Health to register, regulate and inspect pain management clinics throughout the state.

Specifically, the law will require physicians to report prescriptions for controlled substances (Class II through IV) within 15 days of writing them. Doctors also will be granted access to a list of other physicians their patients are seeing to check for drug duplications. Additionally, patients who are purchasing these drugs without insurance will only be given a 72-hour supply. The legislation also aims to shut down pain clinics that are owned and operated by convicted felons and unscrupulous physicians.

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