Dear Readers,

In an effort to curb prescription drug abuse, which continues to plague the nation, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) announced in April a Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Plan that focuses primarily on opioid abuse.

“I don’t use the word ‘epidemic’ lightly, but that’s what the country is in the midst of now and the facts are devastating,” ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske said in an April 19 press conference announcing the proposed plan. “We set a goal of reducing this abuse by 15 percent over the next five years, but the severity of this issue requires a sustained national effort.”

Expanding on the Obama Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy, the plan includes action in four major areas to reduce prescription drug abuse: education, monitoring, proper disposal and enforcement. The action plan involves the collaboration of ONDCP, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

First, to improve educational efforts the plan proposes targeted education programs for health care providers, such as drug manufacturers and health care practitioners, as well as for the general public, including parents, youth and patients. The plan also calls for expedited research on the development of treatments for pain with no abuse potential.

Second, the plan proposes improvements in the 43 existing state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), particularly with regard to real-time access by clinicians and increased interstate operations and communications.

Third, the plan proposes increased proper disposal of prescription drugs and prevent diversion through the DEA’s medication disposal rule, which is currently underway. Once the rule is finalized, the plan is do develop and execute a public education initiative to increase public awareness and provide education on new methods of safe and effective drug return and disposal; and to engage the private sector to support community-based medication disposal programs.

Finally, the plan proposes more rigorous enforcement to prevent doctor shopping and pill mills. In addition to improvements in intelligence gathering and increased joint investigations between federal, state and local law enforcement, the plan proposes the creation of a pain clinic regulation law. Specifically, the law would address: registration of these facilities with a state entity; guidance for rules regarding the number of employees, location and hours of operation;penalties for operating, owning or managing a non-registered pain clinic; requirements for counterfeit-resistant prescription pads and reports of theft/loss of such pads; disciplinary procedures to enforce the regulations; and a procedure to allow patient records to be reviewed during regular state inspections.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Muller

Editor Counselor