As deaths from overdoses on popular painkillers continue to rise in Georgia, lawmakers once again are proposing a possible solution that would allow doctors and pharmacists to keep better track of pill abuse.
“It’s extremely important,” said Rep. Tom Weldon, R-Ringgold. “We’ve got these pills being put in the hands of young people … who don’t understand how these drugs are supposed to be taken.”
The House bill, sponsored by Weldon but not yet filed, would create a database for doctors and pharmacists to search a patient’s medical history if they are suspicious of prescription abuse known as “doctor shopping.” In such cases, drug abusers go from one doctor’s office to another, getting prescriptions for popular pain medications including oxycodone, methadone and hydroco- done, then sell it or take it for themselves.
Weldon said he will file the bill, which mirrors Senate Bill 36 sponsored by Sen. Earl Carter, R-Pooler, in the Georgia General Assembly today. Prescription drug abuse is a growing problem in Georgia, authorities say.
“We have nothing in place right now [to monitor it], so it’s rampant,” Walker County Coroner Dewayne Wilson said.
Because the pills easily are accessible on the black market, substance abuse is popular among teenagers who can afford the drugs and are searching for a quick high, police say, but it’s easy to overdose on the drugs and hundreds of accidental deaths occur each year.
In Georgia, overdose deaths increased from 638 in 2008 to 670 in 2009, said John Bankhead, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman.
Doctors say it can be difficult to know if a person has a legitimate problem or if they are abusing a prescription.
With a database such as the one proposed, both doctors and pharmacists can see if the patient has been going to other doctors, said Dr. John Antalis, with the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians.
“If our goal is to help the people who are truly hurt and try to cut down on [the number of] people who use this in an abusive way, we need information,” he said.
Some parents who have lost a child to prescription drug abuse say the loss can’t be described.
“When the coroner’s office called and said they needed to talk to me, I knew my worst fears had come to fruition,” said Millie Cheek, of Ringgold, Ga., whose son died from a drug overdose six years ago.
Cheek’s 26-year-old son, Robbie Hunsucker, fell alseep after drinking and taking hydrocodone at a party and never woke up.
“My son didn’t have a prescription; he bought it from someone,” she said. “The only way to get it stopped is to make it less and less available.”
But some groups criticize the proposed bills, arguing the database would give away too much personal information for legitimate patients.
“[Patients] shouldn’t be treated like a criminal,” said Brett Bittner, executive director for the Georgia Libertarian Party, which openly is opposed to the bill.
But Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency Director Rick Allen said his agency now is the only one that freely can look at the information without a subpoena. If the bill is passed, that will stay the same, he said.