Editorial: It’s correct to monitor drug sales

Monday, Jan. 6, 2003 | 9:20 a.m.

Civil libertarians criticize states for monitoring the sales of potentially addictive prescription drugs, saying that it violates a person's right to medical privacy. They are especially critical of the 17 states, including Nevada, that allow law enforcement agencies access to the records. Here are a few reports that explain why states maintain such records:

A federal survey last summer of 1.1 million "drug mentions" in reports compiled by hospital emergency rooms around the country revealed 43 percent were for "primarily the nonmedical use" of a legal drug. In other words, there are a lot of people showing up in the nation's emergency rooms after abusing drugs obtained legally from pharmacies. Another report from last summer came from the medical examiners of Florida, who reported the startling news that prescription drugs killed more Floridians in 2001 than did illegal drugs. A couple of years ago the Drug Enforcement Administration prepared a report on state prescription drug monitoring programs. In the report, Nevada reported that its pharmacies were filling about 1.8 million "controlled substance," or potentially addictive, prescriptions a year, equating to one for "every man, woman and child residing in the state." The state also reported an incident in which one person "received 250 controlled substance prescriptions from 7! 4 practitioners and filled those prescriptions at 55 pharmacies."

In Nevada, pharmacists must submit a monthly report to a state task force of medical professionals. The report contains the names of people who have purchased controlled drugs and the names of the doctors who prescribed them. A database is created that allows cross referencing to spot people who are at risk of addiction, such as those getting prescriptions from multiple doctors. This information is helpful for doctors in advising their patients. It also points up doctors who are filling individual prescriptions in excess of standard medical needs. If a law enforcement agency has opened an investigation of someone, information in the database on that person is turned over upon request. This is rare -- in the years 1997 and 1998, the database revealed more than 10,000 patients thought to be exceeding normal amounts of prescriptions, but only 66 names were tu rned over to police.

National statistics are showing a trend of increasing overdoses and deaths from non-medical uses of controlled drugs. There are reports of children abusing prescription drugs taken from their parents' supply. Some people use the ingredients of controlled drugs in the manufacture of illegal drugs. In light of the widespread misuse, the monitoring of sales, along with limited cooperation with police, is necessary.