Schneiderman: New Mandatory Verification Of Painkiller Prescriptions Should Go A Long Way Toward Curbing Addiction, Violence
(NEW YORK) Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today published an op-ed in Newsday detailing how I-STOP – the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing – aims to reduce the dangerous misuse of prescription painkillers, making our communities safer and aiding patients who get hooked on these highly addictive medicines. The op-ed notes that I-STOP includes a first-in-the-nation requirement that doctors and other health care providers check a real-time database before prescribing opioid pills. The following are excerpts of the article:
ON A NEW VERIFICATION SYSTEM: Starting August 27th, 50,000 New York doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners will have to check the database before prescribing powerful medications — and pharmacists will have to enter into it every opiate prescription they fill. This will send up a red flag if a doctor-shopper is hoarding pills and warn of potential drug interactions with other medications that legitimate patients may be taking.
ON THE PROBLEM OF OVER-PRESCRIBING: Nationwide, enough pain pills were sold in 2010 to give every adult 5 milligrams of hydrocodone every four hours for a month … In New York, a state with 19.4 million people, pharmacists filled 13 million prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and other addictive drugs in 2012. In New York City, 2.2 million prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and similar drugs were written in 2011, up 31% from 1.6 million in 2008.
ON THE COSTLY TOLL OF PAINKILLER MISUSE: Dr. Saji Francis went to prison last year after a patient, Timothy Kroll, died of a heart attack at 23. He had gone to Francis for treatment of migraines and was prescribed large amounts of oxycodone, which led to an addiction to cocaine and, ultimately, heroin. Kroll became a powerful symbol of a crisis out of control. But innocent patients aren’t the only victims … In 2011 … four people were shot dead at a Medford, L.I., pharmacy by a robber who stole 10,000 pain pills.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BATTLING AN EPIDEMIC: These safeguards are so important that after my office proposed I-STOP, New York’s Legislature unanimously passed it by a combined Assembly and Senate vote of 174-0. Across the country, hospitals are inundated by addicts they cannot care for because there simply are not enough treatment beds. Detox is time-consuming and expensive, with no guarantee of success. It is far better to prevent addiction than try to treat it after a patient gets hooked. I-STOP is a strong step in that direction.
The full op-ed by Attorney General Schneiderman can be read here.
