Pubdate: Sat, 09 Nov 2002
Source: Tuscaloosa News, The (AL)
Copyright: 2002 The Tuscaloosa News
Contact:  http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1665
Author: Stephanie Taylor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

OFFICERS TARGET PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

TUSCALOOSA -- Pharmacist Jim Myers knows a phony prescription when he sees one.

An unusually strong dosage prescribed to someone who looks perfectly 
healthy or an unfamiliar signature of a doctor he's known for years are 
signs that something could be wrong.

Three or four times a month, someone will come into one of Myers' stores 
with a fake prescription, he said. The pharmacist will call a doctor to 
check it out, which often leads to a call to local police.

As prescription drug abuse has increased in the county, narcotics officers 
have been forced to devote more time to investigating altered or forged 
prescriptions.

Tuscaloosa Police Capt. Jeff Snyder, head of the West Alabama Narcotics 
Task Force, decided to create a network called "Script-Watch" o an effort 
between law enforcement, pharmacies and physicians that would make it much 
more difficult to pass a fake prescription.

"We feel like this is a really good program, and we're going to use it to 
the fullest," Myers said.

The network, which has been in development for about a year, went into use 
last week. It was modeled after a similar program in Calhoun County.

Pharmacists send information about a suspect prescription to a fax number 
set up by WANS that simultaneously transmits to all area pharmacies and the 
narcotics squad.

A major advantage of the new network will be a way to quickly apprehend 
people who go from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to pass false prescriptions.

Narcotics agents will have to spend much less time working on follow-up 
investigations, Snyder said.

Most people who alter or forge prescriptions, Snyder said, are in search of 
highly addictive painkillers such as hydrocodone, found in the medications 
Vicodin and Lortab and oxycodone, found in Oxycontin, Percocet and Tylox.

Myers said another medication people commonly try to obtain illegally is 
Xanax, which is taken to reduce anxiety.

Snyder said Tuscaloosa's problem with altered or forged prescriptions is 
worsened because of surrounding rural counties, where towns have only one 
or two pharmacies.

Pharmacists there catch on quickly if one of their regular customers 
presents a phony prescription from one of the few doctors in town. But 
Tuscaloosa has more than 45 pharmacies to choose from, Snyder said, and 
pharmacists receive prescriptions from hundreds of physicians.

"We're in an unfortunate location," he said.

Snyder said that prescription drug abuse accounts for more drug arrests 
than marijuana or cocaine possession.

He said the goal of the program is not to put people addicted to 
painkillers behind bars.

"There are good people who get addicted to these things. We want to get 
them help so they can get off of them," Snyder said.

"But if they're obtaining them to sell them, we do want to send them to 
prison."
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