Drug Abuse Bills.....

Drug abuse bills may help improve prison overcrowding

CHARLESTON - A local state senator thinks new legislation addressing prescription drug abuse might help the state deal with its overcrowding prisons.

State Sen. Frank Deem, R-Wood, commented recently on legislation submitted to the Senate by Sen. Evan Jenkins, D-Cabell, and others to address continuing problems with prescription drug abuse.

''Some of it, in part, can address what is wrong,'' Deem said of rising prescrition drug abuse.

Jenkins had announced recently he and a number of collegues have drawn up 11 bills to deal with prescription drug abuse on multiple fronts.

Deem said one of the major problems facing the state is prison overcrowding with a large amount of the prison population is in on drug charges.

The Legislature wants to address the growing problem of prescription drug abuse this session, he said.

In Wood County, there were 16 overdose deaths due to prescription drug abuse in 2009, up from 10 deaths in 2008, county officials have said. There are also multiple overdoses admitted to area hospital where they reached help in time to save their lives, officials added

Some of the drugs being abused locally include Seroquel, Oxycodone, Xanax, Celexa, Vicodin, Valium, Doxepin, Effexor and Methadone.

Many overdoses come from people mixing these medications with others or taking them with alcohol without knowing how the substances will react with one another.

People are becoming addicted to prescription medications because they can be more easily stolen from relatives and others. Parkersburg police have seen an increase in prescription drugs thefts from people's homes.

This abuse crosses all socioeconomic lines from the wealthy to the poor, because they are easy to obtain, local officials said.

In the language of Senate Bill 81, also known as the "West Virginia Official Prescription Program Act," the sponsors said the use of fraudulent prescriptions to illegally obtain drugs is a serious problem in America today.

''It has few equals for sheer size, speed of growth, resistance to deterrence, harm to people from so many strata of society, and large costs to insurers,'' the bill stated. ''Overdoses, deaths and injuries continue growing at an alarming rate.

''More than 20 million Americans - nearly seven percent of the population - were estimated to abuse prescription drugs in 2007, based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.''

The bill's sponsors also said prescription drug diversion drains health insurers nationally of up to $72.5 billion a year, including up to $24.9 billion annually for private insurers. Estimated losses include insurance schemes, plus the larger hidden costs of treating patients who develop serious medical problems from abusing the addictive narcotics they obtained through the swindles.

Federal law now requires tamper resistant prescriptions for all Medicaid prescriptions, and states such as New York have recently implemented document security programs as part of their efforts to reduce substantially prescription drug fraud, the bill said adding New York documented Medicaid savings of $140 million directly tied to its secure issuance prescription program during the first year after implementation of the program, and it is estimated that the savings resulting from the reduction in prescription drug fraud will more than pay for the cost of implementing an official secure state prescription program in West Virginia within a reasonable period of time following initial implementation.

The bill describes how a similar program can be started in West Virginia, including the use of tamper-resistant prescription forms.

Deem said many people who abuse prescription drugs go from doctor to doctor, or "Doc Shop," and get prescriptions for the same medications and have them filled at a pharmacy.

''They can buy them for $30 and sell them for $300,'' he said.

He would like to see the formation of a database to track what prescriptions are being filled for who to see if certain prescriptions are being filled out by the same person more than normal.

''We need to try to dry up their supply,'' Deem said.

There is a portion of drug offenders currently in prison who are considered non-violent.

In recommendations presented to lawmakers, one option is to build a new prison, which could cost anywhere from $100-$200 million, which could put a strain on the state. Other options include alternative sentencing for non-violent offenders, including home confinement and work release programs, which could exclude the cost of having to lock them up.

To do that, they need professionals trained to work with people to keep them off of drugs. However there is a shortage of those type of professionals.

''Like everything else, it will take money,'' Deem said. ''This is something we will take up and have to address.

Source:

Parkersburg News and Sentinel
Written: February 2, 2010
Posted by: Dee February 8 2010