Legislative Update: Bill tries to fight abuse of prescription painkillers

Tuesday, May 2, 2012, 10 p.m. – The remaining item on Governor Steve Beshear’s call for a special session was to address “the scourge of prescription drug abuse that plagues our citizens,” which is an interesting way to characterize a problem that, at its root, is the tendency of individuals to abuse themselves by taking narcotics that they shouldn’t; or overdosing on drugs that are legally prescribed for them.

We’re told that three Kentuckians per day die from an overdose of drugs that require a prescription. That’s rightly a concern for lawmakers, and our main focus should be the ease with which those drugs are illegally acquired.

What you have in many places (inside and outside of Kentucky) are “pain management” clinics where a person can go get some pills to ease the pain of, for example, a backache. You go there and tell them you have back pain, and they give you a prescription for drugs.

The problem is that many of these clinics don’t seem to be in the business of managing pain as much as they are in the business of selling pills. It’s especially evident in clinics that are owned by entrepreneurs, rather than by physicians. Remember the news stories a few years back when busloads of Kentuckians traveled to a pain clinic in Florida, then hopped back on the bus for the return trip? That’s what we’re talking about.

These clinics were highly profitable, and expanded into other states, including Kentucky. Senator Jimmy Higdon proposed a bill in the regular session to limit ownership of these clinics to physicians; that method was proving successful in other states, and he thought we should try it here.

His bill became the foundation for Rep Stumbo’s HB 1 in the special session. But Stumbo’s bill went much further, requiring all prescribing physicians to use an electronic drug-monitoring system called KASPER. This was to help prescribers identify “doctor-shoppers,” people who go from place to place to get more than one prescription.

HB 1 also described how physicians should operate, and encoded in statute the procedure to use from the time a patient comes in the door to when they leave. In my opinion, this is better left to the state’s Board of Medical Licensure, if at all. Overall, we’ve inserted law enforcement into patient-doctor relationships in all cases, where it’s necessary only in a few.

Another major problem, for me, is that a doctor’s license to practice can be suspended if they are merely suspected of abusing the privilege. If they are found innocent, there is no way they can get back those months/years when their practice was on hold and their reputation damaged..

Generally, people are pleased with the final version of the bill which your General Assembly passed during the special session. I hope that it is successful, and decreases the incidence of prescription drug abuse in Kentucky.

However, there are other ways not addressed in HB 1 to acquire narcotics in a seemingly legal way. There are internet sales from “offshore havens” where you go to a web page, click, and buy, with no need to prove that your back hurts. You don’t even have to leave the house; in a few days they’ll deliver the drugs to your front door. For just one example, go online to “Tijuana Pharmacy;” to enter the site, all you need to do is provide them with your credit card information.

In the minds of some, the magnitude of the drug problem warrants extraordinary measures, and perhaps they are right. We can pass all the laws we want, but citizens are still finding ways to poison themselves. Still, we have to do as much as we can; the trick is to be effective without infringing on individual liberty, guaranteed to all Americans through our constitution.

The best part of my job is hearing from you. Please call me at home, or leave a message in Frankfort at 1-800-372-7181. I’m here to help.

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