PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE BITTER PILL FOR TRI-COUNTY

The rise of prescription drug abuse is being felt by area law
enforcement agencies, physicians, pharmacists and prosecutors, and it
soon may affect the way people get their medications.

The most recent figures show that in 2002, almost 30 million people
age 12 and older used pain killers non-medically in their lifetimes,
according to the Web site for the National Survey on Drug Use and
Health. About 1.5 million people 12 and older were dependent on or
abused prescription pain relievers in 2002.

"It's getting to be an epidemic," said Dr. Charles Cloutier, who has
a Prattville family practice.

"You are almost suspicious of everyone who comes into the office, but
you have the responsibility to treat the patient," said Cloutier.
"It's up to the doctors and pharmacists to use our experience to weed
people out who we think are abusing prescription drugs. If someone
comes in my office and asks for pain pills, I won't prescribe that
many, and very rarely will I put a refill on the prescription."

Pain pills are the most abused drugs, officials said. Cloutier
doesn't leave prescription pads and samples of medications in his
examining rooms. People who abuse prescription drugs will often steal
the pads to write forged prescriptions, Prattville Police Chief
Alfred Wadsworth said.

Prattville and Montgomery police departments each have a full-time
investigator working prescription drug abuse cases.

"People will write fake prescriptions," Wadsworth said. "If they
can't get a pad from a doctor's office, they will use a computer to
create a prescription. They will also alter actual prescriptions,
changing the numbers of pills or numbers of refills. Then they will
pharmacy shop, going from pharmacy to pharmacy often getting the same
prescription filled several times."

And the problem will only get worse in the future, Elmore County
Sheriff Bill Franklin said.

"We are seeing a migration from crack and meth to pill taking,
especially among the younger generation," he said. "Meth burns the
body out so quickly, so drug users are shifting to things like
hydrocodone and other narcotics."

Franklin said his department is seeing an increase of suspects found
with prescription pills in their possession.

"There are a lot of people abusing these drugs, but increasingly we
are seeing them sold on the streets," he said.

Jessie Phillips of Montgomery has experience in dealing with the
abuse. Her best friend became addicted to painkillers following a
horse riding accident.

"She had her right leg badly broken and had two surgeries to fix it,"
she said. "I noticed she hadn't been acting herself, and that she was
still taking the pain killers months after the last surgery. It was
very hard, but I had to tell her she was a drug addict, the same kind
of addict who uses cocaine or methamphetamine. That was about a year
ago. Thankfully she got help and hasn't used anything, prescription
or otherwise, since."

Other states have taken steps to prevent prescription abuse, Cloutier
said. Some require prescriptions in triplicate with one copy going to
the doctor, one to the pharmacy and one to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I would support a law that ends phone-in refills for narcotics,"
Cloutier said. "If you have a bad back and need pain pills, you
probably should come in to see the doctor anyway. That would do away
with one way people use the system to abuse prescription drugs."

The idea has merit, said Rep. Mac Gipson, R-Prattville.

"I certainly think it's something that needs more study, especially
since prescription drug abuse seems to be on the rise," he said.
"This last session we passed a law that changed they way you buy
over-the-counter sinus and allergy medicines, since they were the
main ingredient in making meth."

More laws won't solve anything, said Chase Gardner of Wetumpka.

"Why should I be punished because someone else abuses prescription
drugs?" he said. "If you have to go to the doctor every time to get
more medicine, that's going to cost you more money. I've got a bad
back, and from time to time I take prescribed muscle relaxants. A
prescription of 30 pills may last me two years because I only take
them when I need them. When I need another dose, I just call my
doctor and he calls the pharmacy. I like it working that way."

[Sidebar]

U.S. Prescription Drug Figures

Use: The numbers of people using prescription pain relievers
illegally for the first time increased from 600,000 in 1990 to more
than 2 million in 2001

Percentage: In 2002, about 30 million people age 12 and under, or 13
percent of the population, used prescription pain relievers illegally
at least once in their life time

Numbers: In 2002, 7.1 million people age 12 and older were dependent
on or abused illicit drugs. The number of persons who were dependent
on or abused prescription pain relievers, 1.5 million, was second
only to the people who were dependent on or abused marijuana.