MOUNTIE BLAMES DOCTORS

Inquiry Hears Of Prescription Abuse

EDEN VALLEY RESERVE -- A Mountie slammed the medical profession yesterday
for its part in an "astounding" problem of prescription drug abuse that has
brought death to this reserve southwest of Calgary.

And a fatality inquiry into two reserve members who died of prescription
drug overdoses heard from an ambulance driver who said he'd been to 200
such calls here.

Claudia Labelle, 26, was found dead in her bed April 19 last year, and
Roderick Lefthand died of an overdose Jan. 20. Both deaths are being called
prescription drug overdoses.

"The mixture of prescription drug abuse combined with alcohol is a major
problem on a reserve of this size," said Turner Valley RCMP Const. Joseph
Dupont, who had been called when Labelle was found.

Dupont quoted statistics showing 2,700 prescriptions for drugs had been
written for reserve members in a three-month period.

"For a reserve of this size with only 200 to 250 adults, the figure of
2,700 prescriptions is astounding."

Dupont said doctors over-prescribing were putting so many drugs in
circulation, they were encouraging trafficking.

"It appears to me that the medical profession isn't being responsible in
addressing what's happening," he said. "They're making it very easy for the
community here to obtain the drugs, making the problem much worse."

Dupont said there was only one explanation.

"Unfortunately, judging by the numbers, you'd have to believe there's
trafficking in prescription drugs," he said, adding the blame ought to be
laid at the feet of doctors who over-prescribe.

"When I investigated prescription drugs, no one seems to be accountable and
it was hard to get any answers," he said.

He said Mounties at Turner Valley didn't have the manpower to investigate
prescription drug abuse.