A recent poll found that more than 70 percent of prescription pain users do not realize sharing their drug is a felony and only one in five Americans has serious safety concerns about the pain killers. To curb abuse and misuse, policymakers are taking a closer look at opioid drug prescribing.
States are also looking at a variety of new drug technologies to make it harder for people to abuse prescription drugs. Currently there are six abuse-deterrent drugs drugs with less or no addictive properties approved by the Food and Drug Administration FDA on the market, with additional options in the pipeline. Some states are considering labeling abuse-deterrent drugs as preferred drugs, mandating insurance coverage for such drugs, issuing recommended prescribing guidelines and educating doctors about their availability.
Many states have also begun to explore increasing the use of naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of opioids and can prevent overdose deaths. As of July , 37 states had laws addressing access to naloxone for at-risk people, 24 states provide immunity to prescribers who provide naloxone to laypeople, and 24 states authorize prescriptions of naloxone to at-risk people. By , all states except Missouri had adopted legislation creating their own prescription drug monitoring program.
Other state PDMP-related policies include providing prescription data to medical professionals, sharing data among states to help law enforcement identify cross-state abusers, and adding additional drugs to the tracking database. As of July , 42 states had or plan to have interstate data exchanges and 34 states allow their PDMPs to provide unsolicited data reporting to medical professionals.
Schedule I is ranked the highest and is prohibited from being prescribed. To address the public lack of awareness about prescription drug abuse, officials in Kentucky and Utah have implemented statewide awareness campaigns to educate teens, parents, educators and doctors about the dangers associated with prescription drug abuse and misuse.
The federal government provides several resources to state and local governments to combat prescription drug abuse. The most common drugs involved in prescription overdose deaths include:. Additionally, prescription painkiller overdose deaths often involve benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines are central nervous system depressants used as sedatives, to induce sleep, prevent seizures, and relieve anxiety.
Reducing the supply of unwanted prescription drugs is critical, as the Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that nearly one-third of children 12 and over who use drugs for the first time, begin with a prescription drug for a nonmedical purpose. In November , our office released a handout that educates consumers as to the proper storage and disposal of prescription medication:.
If you know of anyone who may be inappropriately prescribing or distributing prescription drugs, you can confidentially report this information to your local West Virginia State Police detachment or local county sheriff's office.
To help combat this issue, The Office of the Attorney General has implemented a multi-faceted strategy. That includes his partnering with the U. The Attorney General also sits on the National Association of Attorneys General Substance Abuse Committee, in addition to dedicating a consumer protection representative to travel the state with education on substance abuse issues and implementation of a Dispose Responsibly of Prescriptions DRoP program to aid in the safe disposal of unwanted medications.
The time is now for all of us — government officials, medical professionals, law enforcement, faith-based leaders and the community at large — to do everything possible to put an end to these senseless deaths. State Agency Directory Online Services.
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