11:37 am Pills popped, lives spilled
The facts are so cold, so brutal, that they make the mind reel:
In 2010, there were more deaths in Tennessee due to drug overdoses than from motor vehicle traffic accidents, homicide or suicide.
In the past 10 years, more than 8,000 Tennesseans have died from drug overdose.
These are not dope addicts dying in dark alleys, a needle hanging from their arm. These abused prescription drugs. They’re busy moms, outpatients on painkillers, and teens partying on the contents of their parents’ medicine cabinet.
The vast majority had no intention of killing themselves. But consider the powerful drugs they took: hydrocodone or oxycodone, often in combination with antidepressants.
Our state is Painkiller Central, and none of us is far removed from the tragedy.
As public-health officials have noted, it is pretty easy in Tennessee to get prescription narcotics. Some rack up extra drugs by doctor-shopping. Some have physicians who overprescribe because they aren’t up to date on pharmacology or just don’t care.
Often, the latter are handing out prescriptions in “pain clinics” that have popped up statewide. Typically, more than half the patients of these private facilities are prescribed pain-management narcotics for periods of more than 90 days.
When so much of their business relies on drugs, there is fertile ground for abuse. In 2010, the state received 2,700 complaints against pain clinics; more than 1,000 were sanctioned.
The legislature and Gov. Bill Haslam have begun to address this epidemic, but frankly they need to do more, and do it soon.
Under the Tennessee Prescription Act of 2012, all prescribers and dispensers authorized for controlled substances “who practice more than 15 calendar days a year” must register in the controlled-substance database. Dispensers will have to report to the database every 24 hours the controlled substances they have dispensed. All prescribers and dispensers would be required to check the database before writing or dispensing a controlled substance to a patient.
Also, the state would be authorized to contract with other states to share database information, and tougher sentences would be imposed for doctor shopping.
But why does the act allow for “smaller operators” to get a waiver on the 24-hour rule of up to seven days? The danger of overprescribing is present, whether a clinic has one doctor or 20. The act places too much emphasis on the “burden of work” for prescribers and dispensers, even allowing clerical workers to check the database on behalf of doctors or pharmacists.
Then there is the fact that the database focuses on patients. There is no effective way for prescribers and dispensers to check on each other to ensure that they each are abiding by the law. Since so many overdose deaths are accidental, this is a crucial piece of the puzzle that is missing.
The overview of the Tennessee Prescription Drug Safety Act states that it “encourages the health professions to govern themselves without the interference of government.” Unfortunately, it is too late for such a light hand to be applied to the pain-management industry. More than 1,000 Tennesseans are now dying each year from prescription-drug overdose. Sterner measures are called for.
—Nashville Tennessean
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