GRIEVING MOMS PUSH CONTROLS ON MEDICINE

TALLAHASSEE··Each mother lost a son. Each son overdosed on prescription
drugs. Each had a story to tell as they came together Tuesday, but the women
had the same plea to state legislators: Pass a law aimed at preventing
deaths from drug abuse.

Still angry and still grieving, they came from Delray Beach, Palm Beach
Gardens and Davie to testify in support of a bill to stop the spread of drug
abuse that hit home for each of them. The bill would create a statewide
computerized system that would allow officials to monitor prescriptions of
controlled substances in an effort to stop rampant doctor-shopping and track
doctors who over-prescribe.

A South Florida Sun-Sentinel series last May documented almost 400 deaths
involving prescription drugs in a seven-county area of South Florida in 2000
and 2001. Each of at least 59 people who died had multiple prescriptions
from the same doctor and filled them at different drugstores, making it
difficult for doctors or pharmacists to detect abuses.

Steven Carey, 25, died in November 2001 after overdosing on a cocktail of
cocaine, the prescription painkiller OxyContin and the anti-anxiety drug
Xanax. Matthew Schrader, 17, overdosed on OxyContin and died in January
2002, six months before his high school graduation. Drew Parkinson, 25, died
last Easter after being prescribed 1,455 pills in a 57-day period.

"These are the pills that took his last breath," said Maureen Flori of
Davie, showing plastic bags filled with candies chosen to resemble the pills
Parkinson was prescribed.

Flori testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term
Care in support of the bill (SB 2390) that would allow the state to monitor
the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances. Her son, diagnosed
with clinical depression, had no medical condition to warrant being
prescribed the narcotics methadone and the sedatives Xanax and Soma, Flori
said, and he was never given an X-ray after he complained of back pain.

"Any doctor that took his blood pressure should have seen the marks on his
arms," said Flori, referring to the telltale signs of an abuser who shoots
up. "Please pass this bill."

The Miami doctor who prescribed Parkinson the drugs is still practicing but
is under investigation, she said.

The investigation of Schrader's death revealed he had been getting drugs
from a friend whose mother had been prescribed OxyContin, said Mischelle
Schrader of Palm Beach Gardens.

Schrader and Maryann Carey of Delray Beach, who both have spoken to Palm
Beach County high school students about the dangers of drugs, said they felt
compelled to testify.

"I knew that if I ever got the opportunity, I would be here," Schrader said
after the meeting. "It's become a passion for me."

Carey added, "It's really to benefit the children who are in schools."

James McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control Policy, said
the law is desperately needed because the spread of prescription drug abuse
has become an epidemic.

Prescription drug deaths continue to rise in Florida, exceeding deaths from
cocaine and heroin during the first six months of 2002, according to the
Florida Medical Examiners Commission.

Opponents of the bill, which passed in the Senate last year but died in the
House, cited concerns about patient privacy.

Those issues have been addressed in updates to the bill filed this year,
McDonough said. There is a companion bill that would make it a felony for an
unauthorized person to gain access to data in the system. The Florida
Medical Association, which previously had concerns about patient
confidentiality, now supports the bill, said association spokeswoman Lisette
Mariner.

The statewide database, with drug records for patients over 16 who receive a
doctor's prescription, would be accessible only by doctors, pharmacists,
state health officials and law enforcement officers actively investigating a
crime, said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who sponsored the bill.

Physicians prescribing controlled substances could ask their patients for
permission to search the database for their names to ensure that they are
not being prescribed the same medication by other doctors, Fasano said. A
patient's refusal would send a red flag to the doctor, he added.

"We're hoping that if the patient doesn't give permission, that the doctor
might think twice about dispensing the drug," Fasano said.

Similarly, a pharmacist who is suspicious of a patient's prescription can
check the database to determine whether the patient already has received the
same drug at other pharmacies. Local authorities could be called if a
problem were suspected, Fasano said.

"We're not out there to be Big Brother," he said. "We don't want to do that.
We feel there is such an epidemic in this state we need to reach out to
these individuals and get them help."

The start-up and annual costs of the database are unknown, but the drug
company Purdue Pharma L.P., maker of the painkiller OxyContin, is
contributing about $1.2 million for the system as part of an agreement
reached last year with the Attorney General's Office. Florida would share
the system with other states at no cost. Fifteen other states have similar
systems.

"I don't think any system is foolproof, but I think it will clearly save
lives," McDonough said.

The bill also would change the way doctors write on prescription pads,
requiring them to indicate the quantity of the dosage both in written and
numerical form to prevent patients from being able to add zeros to the
dosage.

The mothers who testified Tuesday, along with Palm Beach County sheriff's
spokeswoman Diane Carhart, who is spearheading a local anti-drug effort,
also will speak today when the House bill is heard in the House Health Care
Committee.

The Senate bill, which won approval Tuesday in the Health, Aging and
Long-Term Care committee, as well as House version, are making their way
through committees and would take effect in January, if passed.