SCRIPT FRAUD PROBE SET UP

Prescription pad forgeries are on the increase.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia has launched a $100,000
investigation into prescription fraud, a problem it believes is
greatly under-recognised.

The study will establish just how common prescription fraud is and
come up with strategies and technologies to detect altered scripts or
forged scripts from stolen prescription pads.

The president of the Victorian branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of
Australia, Mr Irvine Newton, said the society was greatly concerned
about the rising use of misappropriated drugs.

Victoria Police statistics for 1996-97 reveal more than 400 offences
relating to prescription forgery.

But Mr Newton believes the problem is far greater. ``I think that's
just the tip of the iceberg ... I think it might be in the
thousands,'' he said last week.

On the surface, the statistics suggest there is less than one
prescription fraud for every 100,000 prescriptions dispensed. Victoria
has 1200 pharmacies which dispense an estimated 43 million
prescriptions a year. One of the more prevalent forgeries, said Mr
Newton, was when patients changed prescriptions of temazepam tablets
to temazepam capsules. The minor tranquilliser could then be injected
by patients, he said. Other common prescription forgeries were for
patients to add an item to the bottom of an otherwise legitimate
prescription, or to change the quantity of a medication or the
strength of a medication, he said. One forgery noticed by pharmacists
was when patients changed the strength of Serepax (minor tranquiliser)
prescriptions, from 15 milligrams to 30 milligrams per tablet, Mr
Newton said.

Occasionally, completely fake prescription pads were produced, he
said. ``This contributes to the illicit drug trade. One of the real
reasons why this study is so necessary is that one of the problems of
the illicit drug scene is the mixture of drugs (being used),'' Mr
Newton said. The one-year study, which is being funded by the
Victorian Law Enforcement Drug Fund, was welcomed by doctors. The
Victorian chairman of the Royal Australian College of General
Practitioners, Dr Chris Hogan, said the depth of the problem was not
known.

``The forgery of prescriptions is a difficult topic, because while we
can pick up the bad forgeries, obviously we have not picked up the
good ones,'' he said. ``The most common forgeries are for the
benzodiazepines or for drugs of addiction, such as morphine and
pethidine,'' he said. To help reduce prescription fraud a growing
number of doctors are keeping computer records of the prescriptions
they write. Computerisation allows prescriptions to be
cross-referenced later on for irregularities.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady