Quote :

"^^^^Increased wait-time, increased expenses, lack-of-access....these things are already happening DUE TO the regluations"

If you are saying that prescription medication should be OTC, and anyone can get it, then yeah, I guess regulation is indeed causing those things. But since the government isnt going to be doing that anytime soon, we have to operate within the existing system, and the abusers actually cause those problems.

9/17/2010 3:18:11 PM

I wasn't implying they should be OTC. I was pointing out that law enforcement has bigger fish to fry.

However, now I will say that the situations you presented don't seem realistic. I don't think mildly relaxing perscription drug laws would harm instead of help people who need those drugs.

9/17/2010 3:51:02 PM

Here is the deal because there is a lot of misinformation here

1. DHHS maintains control of the database, no one accesses it without its permission.

2. There are currently 21 SBI agents with access to the database and they are in the Diversion and Environmental Crime unit. They contact DHHS who then looks up the information and decides what relevant information, if any is/should to be passed along to the SBI agent. the SBI agents have to let the Attorney General know that they are requesting this information

3. Sheriffs currently have access to this database without a warrant. Currently they have to contact one of the 21 SBI agents and have them make the request to DHHS to turn over the information. The Sheriffs are asking for permission to sidestep the SBI and ask themselves. The Janitors, Secretaries, etc cannot gain access.

4. DHHS has to approve every request for the information and the request as to be part of a "need-to-know" investigation in which either the SBI or local law enforcement has an active investigation going on.

5. You can gain access to your own record through a "right-to-know" request and the information will be turned over to you.

6. Courts and licensing boards can gain access to the database with a court order

7. It is only for opioids and other drugs that are rife for abuse. What antibiotics you are taking won't show up, your valtrex prescription won't show up.

8. Doctors and Pharmacists aren't handing the information over to the local police for their habitual script shoppers. They have access to prevent providing scripts to script shoppers.

9. Prescription drug abuse and the crimes and deaths associated with it are taking up more and more of local police time. It isn't as simple as someone wants to take a percocet, who gives a shit. The associated property and personal crimes to feed the habit are a big issue.

There is absolutely no way someone would be able to just go through trolling for information about neighbors and what drugs they are on.

[Edited on September 17, 2010 at 9:15 PM. Reason : .]

9/17/2010 9:01:21 PM

I'm glad these pricks can look up that I'm currently taking percocet for my recent surgery

9/17/2010 9:07:32 PM

They can't. But thanks for that uninformed rant.

Also, this isn't a left/right issue. This is part of the model code and is found in a large number of US States. PDMP isn't limited to North Carolina.

9/17/2010 9:11:56 PM

I still say this list shouldn't exist at all.

9/17/2010 11:42:25 PM

Quote :

"Prescription drug abuse and the crimes and deaths associated with it are taking up more and more of local police time. It isn't as simple as someone wants to take a percocet, who gives a shit. The associated property and personal crimes to feed the habit are a big issue. "

I don't see the "property and personal crimes" portion of it as being a big issue, outside of those that could be sovled by granting more access. Please enlighten me.

9/20/2010 2:06:31 PM

the idea that we should be willing to "give a little liberty to gain a little security" is flawed. always has been, always will be.

shit like this:

Quote :

"Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison says the constitutional protection against unjustified searches and seizures inhibits law enforcement and it would be better if police could pull over motorists without probable cause."

is why i don't trust police and will never answer the questions of any police officer ever, a la:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

9/20/2010 2:29:03 PM

Quote :

"I don't see the "property and personal crimes" portion of it as being a big issue, outside of those that could be sovled by granting more access. Please enlighten me."

What are you asking about?

9/20/2010 7:27:48 PM

It's a shame that the problem has been pushed onto the local sheriffs when it would be easier to deal with in higher levels of government. I sympathize with them when so many people OD on prescription drugs. I'm sure they want to help, but this is really something that needs to be tackled by state and federal authorities. No offense to the Wake County Sheriffs Department, but they don't need to know every prescription a motorist has been given to do their job IMO.

9/20/2010 10:48:05 PM

This is why marijuana needs to be legalized.

Maybe even make hydrocodone/acetaminophen combinations available in low dosages without a prescription.

You all realize that a prescription isn't required to purchase tramadol, right? It's just that no pharmacy will sell it you without a prescription. (SPOILER: INTERNET PHARMACIES!)

9/21/2010 1:51:58 AM

^^^You made a claim and I'm asking for evidence.

9/21/2010 8:52:15 AM

You need to learn who to write concise, coherrent sentences.

Are you asking how this database will be utililized to stop personal and property crimes?

Your question makes absolutely no sense.

9/21/2010 11:22:49 AM

You made a claim w/o evidence. I quoted that claim, then said my perception was the exact opposite and asked you to "enlighten me". In other words: tell my why your perception, the one I quoted, is right and mine is wrong. Why is this difficult to understand?

In yet other words, how do you come to the following conclusions:
"Prescription drug abuse and the crimes and deaths associated with it are taking up more and more of local police time"
"The associated property and personal crimes to feed the habit are a big issue"

Quote :

"You need to learn who to write concise, coherrent sentences."

yea...

[Edited on September 21, 2010 at 11:35 AM. Reason : really]

9/21/2010 11:31:16 AM

Quote :

"Sheriffs made their pitch Tuesday to a legislative health care committee looking for ways to confront prescription drug abuse. Local sheriffs said that more people in their counties die of accidental overdoses than from homicides."

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/09/08/669723/lists-of-pain-pillpatients-sought.html#ixzz10Mm5DvtQ


From our neighbor to the Southwest Georgia:

Quote :

"In the past decade, there has been a 400 percent increase in the proportion of Americans treated for prescription painkiller abuse, according to figures from SAMHSA. The take-back initiative is aimed at reducing pill theft and abuse. To raise awareness about the upcoming event, DEA officials partnered with the Clayton County Sheriff's Office and Clayton County Public Schools to host a preview event Wednesday at the middle school. Seventh-graders shrieked in delight when an officer landed a helicopter on the field behind their school, kicking up dried grass and dust. They jumped in surprise when masked agents in an armored vehicle set off a concussion grenade as they demonstrated an arrest of a man driving a sport utility vehicle. Fred Stephens, a special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told the middle-schoolers that law enforcement officers in Georgia report seeing an increase in prescription drug abuse, as well as pill-sharing and illegal distribution of pharmaceuticals. In 2009, there were 584 deaths in Georgia involving an overdose of prescription drugs or a combination of prescription and illicit drugs. That tally did not include overdose deaths reported in metro Atlanta counties with their own medical examiner's offices (Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry and Rockdale counties), Stephens said. Overdose statistics from those counties were not immediately available Wednesday."

Quote :

"Prescription drug abuse is also increasing more consistently and dramatically than illegal substance abuse, particularly in the narcotics analgesics category. Overall illegal drug abuse did not change significantly between 2002 and 2003, and use of some specific drugs declined, e.g., Ecstasy past year use rates fell from .3% to .2%, and hallucinogen past year users fell from 4.7 million to 3.9 million. The number of lifetime non-medical users of pain relievers rose, however, from 29.6 to 31.2 million Emergency department episodes involving narcotic pain relievers increased 45% between 2000 and 2002. These increases reflect the trend over the past fifteen years. Between 1990 and 2002, new abusers of pain relievers rose from 573,000 to 2.5 million. Emergency department episodes involving narcotics pain relievers rose almost 300% between 1995 and 2002. The treatment admissions rate for primary abuse of pain relievers more than doubled between 1992 and 2002."

Quote :

"Millions of pharmaceuticals are also diverted every year through theft from pharmacies, manufacturers, distributors, importers/exporters, and people with legitimate prescriptions. The size and method of thefts vary widely, from a 2004 Boston case involving 11 defendants and millions of dollars worth of pharmaceuticals stolen from large U.S. drug manufacturers, to a series of pharmacy hold-ups in downtown Detroit by a lone addict feeding his Vicodin® habit. Diversion through all kinds of theft is increasing, however; the number of dosage units stolen nationwide increased 16% between 2000 and 2003, reaching almost 3 million. Between 2000 and 2003, the DEA reported 2,494 thefts of OxyContin®, with over 1.3 million dosage units stolen. In Maryland, there were 83 reports from pharmacies, distributors, hospitals, clinics and other businesses of drugs lost or stolen in 2001 and 2002. Almost half involved OxyContin® or another oxycodone derivative, and more than half involved thefts of pharmacies, including armed robberies, break-ins, and employee theft."

http://www.oag.state.md.us/reports/prescriptiondrugabuse.pdf

Quote :

"However, CDC reports that a high percentage of people who die from a prescription opioid poisoning have a history of substance abuse and that many have more than one CPD in their system at the time of death. For example, a 2008 CDC study found that 82.3 percent of diversion-related unintentional overdose decedents in West Virginia in 2006 had a history of substance abuse and that 79.3 percent had used multiple substances that contributed to their deaths. In many instances, these individuals were simply using prescription opioids (either singularly or in combination with other CPDs, alcohol, or illicit drugs) to achieve a heroin-like euphoria, and many did not have a legitimate prescription for the drugs. For example, the CDC study found that 63.1 percent of all unintentional CPD overdose deaths in West Virginia in 2006 involved individuals who did not have prescriptions for the drugs that contributed to their deaths."

Figure 20. Percentage of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Reporting an Association Between Pharmaceutical Diversion and Violent and Property Crimes, by OCDETF Region, 2008-2009




Figure 21. Percentage of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Reporting Street Gang Involvement in Pharmaceutical Distribution, by OCDETF Region, 2008-2009



http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs38/38661/rx.htm

Quote :

"Compared to the rest of the nation, Maine has both the most law enforcement agencies reporting prescription drugs contributing to property crime (32.4%), and the most law enforcement agencies reporting thatprescription drugs contribute to violent crime (26.8%)"

http://methpedia.org/pdf/maine_substance_abuse_overview.pdf

9/23/2010 11:49:53 AM

OK thats exactly what I was looking for, though some of it is beside the point.

9/23/2010 12:57:27 PM

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8640124/

A Raleigh police officer was arrested Tuesday on charges that he posed as a dead man to get a prescription painkiller.

Julian St. Clair King, 26, of 106 Bermuda Green Drive, Durham, is charged with two counts of attempting to obtain a controlled substance by fraud.

Jim Sughrue, a spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department, said in a statement that a police investigation found that King used his position as a police officer to get information about a prescription for a controlled substance while responding to a death on Oct. 10.

11/17/2010 5:23:18 PM

That has nothing to do with the database.

11/17/2010 11:40:43 PM

You can't even trust cops to glance at the pill bottles on your nightstand, much less have unfettered access to your medical records.

11/18/2010 12:14:26 AM

And they aren't given unfettered access.

11/18/2010 8:29:02 AM