PRESCRIPTION DRUG SALES MAY BE MONITORED

Doctor-Patient Privilege Concerns Put Limits On Program

Under a pilot program, a database would be maintained capable of recording
prescriptions filled at pharmacies from Appomattox to Lee counties.

A $397 billion spending bill approved this week by Congress includes money
that may be used to establish a prescription drug monitoring program in
Southwest Virginia.

The sweeping bill, which passed the House and Senate on Thursday, contains
$7 million to be passed on to states for computer databases that track
prescriptions of certain drugs, according to Dan Scandling, spokesman for
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax County.

Virginia has applied for a federal grant to start such a program in the
western half of the state, which in recent years has seen increased abuse
of OxyContin and other painkillers.

Prescription drugs usually find their way to the black market through
so-called "doctor shoppers," who go to multiple physicians and feign
ailments to obtain large amounts of painkillers they then sell to abusers.

Under a pilot program approved by the General Assembly last year, the
state's Department of Health Professions would maintain a database capable
of recording prescriptions filled at about 300 pharmacies from Appomattox
to Lee counties. That would allow police to check for patterns of abuse
that currently cannot be detected by individual doctors or pharmacists.

Concerns about doctor-patient privacy prompted legislators to put a number
of restrictions on the database. Only the most potent drugs are covered,
and police will be allowed access only to records pertaining to someone
already under investigation.

Lawmakers approved the two-year pilot program with the expectation that it
would be funded with federal dollars.

State officials have been waiting since November to see if they will
receive $180,000 in federal funding. Although they hoped to have the system
up and running by spring, the wait for funding may cause its implementation
to be delayed.