DOCTORS SPEAK OUT AGAINST OPTOMETRISTS PRESCRIBING NARCOTICS

JACKSON (AP)- Members of the medical community are urging the state Senate
to reject a bill that would allow optometrists to prescribe narcotic drugs
and perform surgical procedures on eyes.

Dr. Randy Easterling, spokesman for the Mississippi State Medical
Association, said the bill's passage would create a health care threat.

"Drug-seeking patients are very clever and convincing in their attempts to
obtain drugs. The first place that these desperate people will go are to
the innocent prescriber that knows very little about these medications,"
Easterling said Wednesday during a news conference at the Capitol.

The House-passed bill has been referred to the Senate Public Health and
Welfare Committee, and it's unknown when the committee will consider it.

Supporters said the bill would help provide rural residents with access to
eye care. Ophthalmologists oppose the bill, saying optometrists lack the
necessary medical background. Optometrists are not medical doctors.

Sen. Alice Harden, D-Jackson, said ophthalmologists shouldn't be fighting
optometrists since both provide needed health care services.

"As long as these people have the adequate training to dispense those
drugs, the bottom line is that the citizens get a better quality of care,"
said Harden, who supports the bill.

Easterling said there's no evidence that ophthalmology care is being denied
in some communities.

"This has been painted in some venues as ophthalmologist vs. optometrists,
and it's not," he said.

Under the House bill, optometrists could prescribe Schedule III, IV and V
narcotics. Schedule III narcotics include hydrocodone and Lortab, both
addictive street drugs, doctors say.

Forty-nine states allow optometrists to prescribe pain killers and other
narcotics. In Mississippi, optometrists can only use external medicine on
their patients.

Dewey Handy, an optometrist in Jackson, said he and his colleagues need the
authority to prescribe oral medications.

"The topicals, they only go so far. If they come to me and I'm not able to
treat them then I have to send them out to another doctor," Handy said.

Lawmakers said there are about 200 optometrists in the state, and 130
ophthalmologists.

The bill is House 279.