Inspector General: Prescription Abuse "An Epidemic"

Some people think efforts to fight prescription drug abuse are another example of the government overreaching, and such efforts are “so much ado about nothing,” Dr. Jim Mahanes said at the recent Red Zone Rally held to discuss the issue.

But Inspector General Pat Maley said prescription drug abuses kills.

“There's 22,000 dead each year because of this epidemic,” Maley said. “I think what people don't realize is for every overdose death, we have hundreds of addicted citizens who live really a miserable life and existence as an addict.”

For the average citizen, “a lot of this is invisible unless you're touched by it,” he said.

“In Pickens County, if you had a bank robbery crew and they killed 25 people in the county, I believe we'd have a lot of law enforcement to address it,” Maley said. “If you have 25 people die from overdose deaths, it just somehow gets lost in the business of life.”

Of the 36 accidental deaths in Pickens County in 2009, 25 of them were from prescription drug overdoses.

Mahanes shared some more statistics from Coroner Kandy Kelley.

“In 2011, there were 30 overdose deaths and there were also five suicides that were associated with prescription painkillers,” Mahanes said. “In 2012, there were 25 overdose deaths and 10 suicide deaths.”

In the past year, Cannon Memorial Hospital has seen 28 overdose patients admitted who survived, he said.

“So many more are out there that are just on the edge of this and not even getting admitted to the hospital, but are recuperating in some manner on their own?” Mahanes asked. “I have no idea.”

http://easley.patch.com/articles/misconceptions-about-prescription-drugs-endangering-users

State government is critical in addressing the problem, Maley said.

“For the last decade, a lot of people who have parts of this problem have tried to do something,” he said. “Law enforcement's addressing it in a way, but deaths keep going up each year. They're impacting but they're not solving it. There's a lot of wheel-spinning out there. We have a lot of activity, but nobody goes to jail and the pills mills go unaddressed.”

States that have tackled the problem have done so through prescription monitoring program.

“A really good idea to address this problem,” Maley said. “Every prescription that we write in the state, goes to the pharmacy and the pharmacy types it in. We have every prescription here. Once we have it in the system, physicians can use it – when patients come into their office, they can look at the system and see if they are abusers of drug diverters.”

He said drug diverters get a prescription, pay a $25 copay, then they “go out on the street and sell it for $2,600.”

“There's a lot of people doing that,” Maley said.

The problem with the prescription monitoring program is that it's voluntary for physicians, he said.

“Doctors are just not using it,” he said. “States with high death rates have decided … 'We're going to make it mandatory.”

Those states have seen opiate usage rates and death rates fall.

“They cut off the excess supply,” Maley said. “People are still getting what they need. But the abusers and the diverters are being identified; they're not getting the drugs. The drugs are not in circulation.”

States surrounding South Carolina have made prescription monitoring mandatory “and they're starting to see results,” he said.

“I think it's time for South Carolina to do the same thing,” Maley said.

Mahanes asked Captain Chad Brooks, narcotics officer with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office how much time dealing with prescription drug abuse crimes was impacting his job and investigations.

“With the increase in opiate addiction, you get more opiate addiction, so each one of those investigations that we're involved in takes time to work and takes time away from working methamphetamine cases, marijuana cases, whatever else we may be working,” Brooks said. “It just takes away from the illegal aspect, to work prescription abuse and prescription diversion.”