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State Senate passes ‘I-Stop’ to reduce prescription drug abuse epidemic

Posted 6/12/12

Real-time prescription tracking is among the provisions of a bill approved in the state Senate aimed at cutting prescription drug abuse. The plan would provide more information to doctors and …

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State Senate passes ‘I-Stop’ to reduce prescription drug abuse epidemic

Posted

Real-time prescription tracking is among the provisions of a bill approved in the state Senate aimed at cutting prescription drug abuse.

The plan would provide more information to doctors and pharmacists in an effort to prevent deaths from abuse and overdoses of prescription drugs, particularly painkillers.

“The outcry from this problem featured many voices speaking in unison over how serious a health and safety issue that prescription drug-abuse has become,” said Senator Joe Griffo (R-Rome), one of the bill’s cosponsors. “Healthcare advocates, law enforcement, educators, policy makers and families of victims had come to grips with substance abuse that has its beginnings with a simple sheet of paper – a prescription script.”

Since the bill was introduced at the request of the governor and state attorney general, Griffo expects it to be signed into law shortly.

The provisions of the legislation include:

· Creating a modernized and improved “real time” prescription monitoring program (I-STOP) that practitioners and pharmacists can securely and easily access, allowing them to view their patients' controlled substance histories;

· Requiring e-prescribing, making New York a national leader by being one of the first states to move from paper prescriptions to a system mandating electronic prescribing;

· Updating controlled substance schedules to align New York’s Controlled Substances Act with federal law and changing the schedules for hydrocodone compounds and tramadol to reduce abuse;

· Enhancing the Prescription Pain Medication Awareness Program to educate the public and health care practitioners about the risks associated with prescribing and taking controlled substance pain medications; and

· Establishing a safe disposal program to increase the options available to safely dispose of unused controlled substances and prevent people who abuse prescription painkillers from obtaining them from friends or relatives.

The abuse of prescription medicine has become the nation's fastest-growing drug problem according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that nearly 15,000 people die every year of overdoses due to prescription painkillers. In 2010, 1 in 20 people in the United States over the age of 11 reported using prescription painkillers for nonmedical reasons in the past year.