BILL CALLS FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUG CRACKDOWN

A bill introduced in the state House of Representatives would allow the
Mississippi Board of Pharmacy to establish and maintain a controlled
substance prescription monitoring program and could eliminate the major
supply chain to the prescription drug black market.

House Bill 1187, proposed by Rep. Jim Barnett, a medical doctor, is
currently being reviewed by the Public Health and Human Services Committee
and the Appropriations Committee.

McComb physician David Smith said he has been following the legislation and
is in favor of the Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Act, which
would require pharmacists to input a patient's name, prescription, its
quantity and the date dispensed into an electronic database accessible by
the state pharmacy board. The board can then monitor narcotic prescriptions
and prevent an individual from going to several doctors to load up on the
drugs either for personal use or for illegal sale on the street.

"This is something the state really needs," Smith said. "Any narcotic
prescriptions will have to be approved through this program. Not only will
it monitor abusive patients, but it will also monitor these doctors who just
write prescription after prescription."

Smith said it is not uncommon for people to go to a handful of different
doctors to collect dozens of narcotic prescriptions at one time.

"There was one case where a guy had been to 62 different doctors and gotten
prescriptions," Smith said. "They'll go all over the state to get pain
medication they don't need. Right now there is no way for one doctor to know
what another doctor prescribed or when. The new system would fix that."

The pharmacy board has applied for a $350,000 grant to fund the creation of
the program, according to Smith, who said 16 other states have similar
monitoring programs.

"This is a big problem across the country," he said. "It costs the state
millions every year in Medicare costs, law enforcement, judicial and drug
rehab costs. I think the thing will pay for itself."

Smith said pharmacists already have a computer system in place that lists
who the patient is, what their prescription is and when the medication was
dispensed. The transformation would simply be a matter of uploading that
information to a central location where officials could cross-reference
names and prescriptions.

Informally, Smith said he has talked to doctors around the area who are in
favor of the monitoring program.

"This would put a stop to doctor shopping," he said. "It would put a dead
halt on it."

Smith said individuals interested in seeing such a program is Mississippi
should contact their local legislators.