Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jul 2013
Source: Northwest Arkansas Times (Fayetteville, AR)
Copyright: 2013 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Contact: http://nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/68570/letter/
Website: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/828
Author: Evie Blad, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

CURBING RX ABUSE REQUIRES A TEAM EFFORT, U.S. DRUG CZAR SAYS

Effectively confronting the abuse of prescription drugs requires a 
multidisciplinary approach in which police, doctors, pharmacists and 
educators trade approaches to treat and prevent addiction, the 
nation's drug czar said in Little Rock Thursday.

Many of those efforts have taken root at the state level, said R. Gil 
Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy. He highlighted efforts in Arkansas, including 
statewide drug take-back programs and a new prescription drug 
monitoring system that allows prescribers to track patients' use of 
potentially addictive substances.

"This is an unbelievably complicated problem, and it takes everybody 
not only understanding it but everybody working on it to make a 
difference," Kerlikowske told about 700 people gathered at the 
Statehouse Convention Center for the second Arkansas Prescription 
Drug Abuse Summit.

Preventing abuse of prescription drugs has been a focal point for 
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, whose office helped 
organize the event in cooperation with the University of Arkansas 
Criminal Justice Institute and the Arkansas drug director's office.

Arkansas ranked ninth among the 50 states in 2011 for nonmedical use 
of prescription pain relievers, according to a report released in 
January by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration. The agency used survey data collected over a 
multi-year period to estimate that 5.55 percent of Arkansans aged 12 
or older abused a prescription pain medication, the report said.

Oregon topped the rankings, with a 6.37 percent rate of nonmedical 
use of prescription pain relievers, followed by Colorado, Washington, 
Idaho and Indiana, the report said.

McDaniel said Thursday that Arkansas' successful approaches to the 
problem - classified as an "epidemic" by the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention - have involved blending best practices from 
the areas of law enforcement, substance-abuse treatment, prevention 
and education.

"If we approach it purely from a law-enforcement perspective, we will 
fail and we will spend too much money in the process," he said.

Kerlikowske said the White House office has attempted to set the tone 
for state efforts by encouraging a "holistic" approach to the misuse 
of prescription drugs.

Speakers at the event agreed. Doctors should hear from police 
officers about the difficulties prescription-drug abuse can cause on 
the streets, they said, and recovery experts should alert health-care 
providers of evidence that patients are "doctor shopping" to fill 
unnecessary prescriptions.

That means bolstering curriculum in medical schools to help future 
doctors prepare for their role in addressing the problems, 
Kerlikowske said, noting that primary-care physicians have an average 
of 17 minutes with a new patient in which they must assess health-care needs.

Successful strategies also involve taking overdose-prevention tools 
from emergency rooms to the front lines by putting them in the hands 
of police officers and first responders, Kerlikowske said.

In Quincy, Mass., police officers carry doses of nalozone, a drug 
that can be used to counter the effects of opioid overdose, to help 
intervene in health-crisis situations, he said.

Kerlikowske said state and federal officials should combat misuse of 
prescription drugs with the same focus and intensity they've used to 
address problems with car accidents and highway safety.

He spotlighted Arkansas' new prescription-monitoring program as an 
example of an effort that has succeeded elsewhere.

The system, in place for two months, requires pharmacists in the 
state to input all prescriptions for schedule II-V substances - such 
as oxycodone, ephedrine, anabolic steroids and other frequently 
abused drugs - into a computer database. Doctors can then use the 
data to see whether their patients are "doctor shopping," or seeking 
prescriptions from more than one practitioner to mask unusually high use.

Law-enforcement agencies around the state also hold frequent "take 
back" events to collect unwanted or expired prescriptions, keeping 
them out of the hands of those who might abuse them, and also out of 
waterways if they are flushed into the sewer.

"We know that we're not going to make a difference in this epidemic 
unless we're all in a room together and we're all committed," Kerlikowske said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom