Prescription Drug Abuse

In a small but increasing number of cases, lawyers defending soldiers are blaming the U.S. military’s heavy use of psychotropic drugs for their clients’ abnormal behavior and related health issues, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A law in Washington State requires doctors to refer patients taking high doses of opioids for evaluation by a pain specialist if their underlying condition does not improve. The law passed last year is aimed at reducing the epidemic of prescription drug abuse.

California’s prescription drug monitoring program is not effective in curbing prescription drug abuse, because enrollment in the program is optional, and funding for the program is drying up, according to The New York Times.

Law enforcement officials are reporting a rise in armed robberies of pharmacies, by drug dealers and people desperate for prescription painkillers, ABC News reports.

The Drug Enforcement Administration crackdown on improper sales of prescription painkillers, which has been focused on CVS, has now spread to Walgreens, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Sales of oxycodone and hydrocodone are sharply rising in areas of the United States where these prescription painkillers were not as popular in the past, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. The rise in sales is driven by an aging population with pain issues, as well as an increase in addiction, experts say.

A federal bill introduced Thursday would link states’ prescription drug monitoring programs. The proposed nationwide system would allow physicians to see if a new patient has a history of drug abuse in another state before writing a prescription.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced this week the state will sign an agreement to share and receive prescription drug dispensing data with at least 20 other states. The move is designed to help the state monitor prescription drug abuse.

Opana, a powerful opioid, is increasingly being abused in rural America, Reuters reports.

A new campaign, “Safe Storage, Safe Dosing, Safe Kids,” aims to reduce accidental poisonings of children from medications.

Major policy changes are needed to resolve the tension between providing adequate pain relief and tackling the epidemic of prescription opioid overdoses, according to drug policy expert Keith Humphreys, PhD.

Older adults who take opioids after minor surgery are more likely to become long-term opioid users compared with those who don’t receive a painkiller prescription after a minor procedure, suggests a new study.

A federal judge has ruled that drug distribution companies must "self-police" to track unusually big drug shipments that might be used improperly.

A proposal to implement a prescription drug monitoring program in New York State has sparked a debate between legislators and two health care professional associations, Forbes reports.

Medicare and private health insurance companies pass on the cost of prescription drug abuse to consumers in the form of higher premiums, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

To reduce the number of methamphetamine labs in the state, Oklahoma prosecutors are asking lawmakers to make the tablet form of pseudoephedrine a prescription.

When the Drug Enforcement Administration recently charged a major health care company and four pharmacies with violating their licenses to sell controlled drugs, it marked the most aggressive efforts by the agency to combat prescription drug abuse, The Wall Street Journal reports.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says singer Whitney Houston’s death is an opportunity to talk about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

More research is needed before officials heavily invest in prescription drug take-back programs as a key component of substance abuse prevention strategies, a new report concludes.

A federal judge has granted CVS a temporary restraining order, which will allow the company to continue to sell controlled prescription drugs at two pharmacies in Florida. The Drug Enforcement Administration raided the pharmacies last weekend and suspended their licenses to dispense controlled substances.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear put his support this week behind several bills designed to fight prescription drug abuse. “If there ever was a Kentucky issue, this is it,” he said at a news conference on Monday.

The Defense Department announced this week it is expanding its drug testing program to include hydrocodone and benzodiazepines. The program already tests for codeine and morphine.

Sales of oxycodone fell 20 percent last year in Florida, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced.

Drug dealers are finding ways to circumvent new laws aimed at closing down “pill mills,” USA Today reports.

A report by the Government Accountability Office calls on federal agencies to do a better job of coordinating and assessing the effectiveness of programs to educate prescribers and the public about prescription drug abuse.