Monitoring Program Will Step Up A Fight Against Illegal Prescription Drug Abuse

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Monitoring Program Will Step Up A Fight Against Illegal Prescription Drug Abuse

Dover Post Posted Jul 16, 2010 @ 02:27 PM Dover, Del. —

Attorney General Beau Biden joined Governor Jack Markell, Dr. R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, state legislators, and healthcare professionals to launch the Delaware Prescription Monitoring Program on Thursday.

“Illegal prescription drug abuse destroys families and is a public safety issue,” Attorney General Biden stated. “Abusers exploit the system to support their destructive drug use or drug trafficking activity. Delaware’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program brings together information from doctors who prescribe drugs and pharmacists who dispense drugs to identify and help stop this activity, and it gives law enforcement a powerful new tool to combat this growing threat.”

Delaware joins more than 30 other states that have a similar program to prevent “doctor shopping” – addicts receiving multiple prescriptions for the same drug from many different doctors. Markell signed legislation into law Thursday outside of Christiana Hospital that establishes the program and a prescription monitoring database containing information about prescription drugs dispensed to patients statewide. Pharmacies, excluding those in healthcare facilities, would be required to report specific information to the program. Doctors will consult this database before prescribing medications to check drug interactions and to screen for possible drug abuse.

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