While Missouri lawmakers continue to nudge forward a bill to establish a prescription drug monitoring program, authorities nationwide have sounded a new alarm regarding deadly opioid imposters.
The state House last week advanced a bill by Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, to establish a database that would allow physicians and pharmacists to monitor patients' use of opioid painkillers.
Missouri remains the only state without a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), largely as a result of privacy concerns voiced by opponents.
Prescription opioids, including oxycodone and morphine, are highly addictive, and a PDMP is designed to prevent patients from "doctor shopping" to acquire more than the prescribed amount.
The tortured path is that "doctor shopping" leads to prescription drug addiction and, in many cases, to illegal drugs, including heroin.
A study last year by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found about 75 percent of new heroin users first became hooked on prescription opiates. In many cases, heroin became more attractive because it was less expensive and more accessible.
A disturbing, new concern was revealed in an Associated Press report published in Tuesday's News Tribune. The story began: "Authorities are sounding the alarm about a new and deadly twist in the country's drug-addiction crisis in the form of potent painkillers disguised as other medications."
According to the story, drug dealers are substituting purported prescription drugs with a cheaper, more potent drug, fetanyl, creating what one acting U.S. attorney called: "A fatal overdose waiting to happen."
As we wrote in this forum in February, although we are sensitive to privacy concerns, we have no problem allowing physicians and pharmacists to have access to the database. As the licensed professionals who prescribe and dispense the drugs, they already have access to the information. In addition, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) prohibits them from disclosing patient information.
Any privacy concerns, largely a red herring, pale in comparison to the powerful pull of prescription drug abuse, which is leading otherwise law-abiding citizens into addiction, substituting illegal drugs and succumbing to imposter drugs and fatal overdoses.
Missouri lawmakers have an opportunity to interrupt this dangerous, downward spiral.
Urgency exists; legislators must not hesitate.