28 - November 01, 2012
Your Hometown Newspaper ,
News Outlook
not being truthful. We
just want to make sure
that they monitor their pa-
tients' prescription drug
history as all reputable
doctors should. A survey
of those who use KASPER
found that a quick check
- which usually takes just
seconds - often helps
them re-think what they
prescribe.
While the leg-
islation's concept is clear,
there has beensome con-
fusion in the wake of pro-
posed regulations that,
it is crucial to note, were
written bY physicians and
not legislators. These li-
censhrg boards wanted
the authority to fill in the
fine print to carry the law
out, and we in the legisla-
ture agreed because they
are the experts. It is iron-
ic, then, that most of the
complaints I have heard
from physicians are not
about the law so much as
the rules their own licens-
ing board wrote.
Fortunately, regu-
/
to change than law, and
the licensing board is cur-
rently rewriting the rules.
At the same time, there
is a legislative oversight
committee that is study-
ing what improvements
the General Assembly
may need to make in 2013.
That was expected fTom
the beginning, because
most landmark laws re-
quire tweLking once we
see how they are being
carried out. House Bill 1
is no different.
Still, after seeing
what we have been able
to accomplish in a short
period of time, I'm more
convinced than ever that
we are on the right path
when it comes to putting
a true dent in the pre-
scription drug epidemic.
Those who believe other-
wise are, to be blunt, just
wrong. Some doctors may
think of it as bitter medi-
cine, but as they might tell
their patients: It's the only
way things can get better.
Photo by Cecil Lawson
It may not be the zombie apocalypse, but the
staff of Family Discount Drugs was getting
into the act for Halloween this year,
When an apple a day isn't enough,-
call the Physician Referral Line
Matching you to
the right physician
at the right time
is our specialty.
Call today--
the servic(
Stumbo (D-Prestonsburg)
It has been a little more
than three months since
legislation I sponsored
to crack down on illegal
prescription drug abuse
became law, but for many
Kentuckians, it hopefully
feels like a lifetime.
I say that be-
cause we are starting to
see some true progress
when it comes to kick-
ing pill pushers out of the
state for good and putting
the brakes on an epidemic
that claims the lives of at
least three citizens a day
across the commonwealth.
As Governor
Beshear noted recently,
10 pain clinics have closed
since the law took effect
in July, prescriptions for
some of the most abused
drugs are dropping and
h' kdlJs idvesfigations
are closing in on rogue
doctors who prescribe
recklessly. And that's just
the start.
If there is one thing
I have learned during my
time in the Capitol, how-
ever, it is that this issue is
always evolving. When I
was Attorney General, for
example, internet pharma-
cies were prominent, so
much so that those driving
the trucks for overnight
package companies would
• actually be followed by ad-
dicts who could not wait
an extra minute for a ship-
ment. When we stopped
that method, drug seek-
ers travelled to states like
Florida, where oversight
was lax.
As those states
began putting a stop to
that trend, We saw drug di7
version spike here in our
own backyard. These pill
mills were often easy to
spot, too; you just had to
look for a line of "patients"
trailing outside a doctor's
door.
House Bill 1,
which the General Assem-
bly approved in April, puts
a stop to that practice. It
takes full advantage of
what has become one of
the nation's top prescrip-
tion drug monitoring pro-
grams - known by its ac-
ronym, KASPER- and it
gives law enforcement and
medical licensing boards
alike the information and
oversight they need to
find pill-pushing doctors
and those who try to game
the system to feed their
addiction,
To be successful,
this effort is requiring the
help of all doctors who pre-
scribe medicine, because
they are the gatekeepers.
No program can be truly
effective without having
everyone on the same
Crew cab, SLT package, .
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page. If we knew who the : :'
bad guys were from the oneowner, Florida trade-in,
beginning, we wouldn't
need any laws at all, '~ ,
Thls legislation
does not hinder proper:
medical care. Doctors still
have the same authority to
do what they !
ically necessary,
who claim otherwise are
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