Attorney general aims to lower prescription drug abuse by tracking prescriptions electronically
A recent proposal by New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman may bring down the amount of prescription drug abuse in New York and on college campuses like Syracuse University.
Schneiderman’s proposal works to track prescriptions in an Internet database automatically. Previously, prescriptions were only logged once a month, according to WSYR News.
Twenty-one million prescriptions are written per year in New York state, said Ross Sullivan, clinical assistant of emergency medicine at the Upstate Medical University Hospital. The system would alert doctors to previous prescriptions already given to the patient before they could add their own, Sullivan said.
‘National data says that more people are addicted to prescription medication than any other drug besides marijuana,’ Sullivan said.
Dessa Bergen-Cico, assistant professor in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, said according to surveys taken in her class, more than half of the students at SU admit to using Adderall and other stimulants.
‘Prescription drug usage is a problem nationally and certainly on college campuses,’ Bergen-Cico said. ‘Prescription drugs come across as being not as illicit as other drugs.’
Bergen-Cico said the proposal should help reduce levels of abuse in New York state because it will alert doctors and pharmacists to those who are attempting to ‘doctor swap,’ or switch doctors in an attempt to obtain more prescriptions.
Sullivan said prescription drugs like Oxycodone and Lortab are in the same family as heroin, making them highly addictive. Because drugs like these are relatively easy to get, more people are abusing them.
He is also optimistic about this proposal, saying it is a ‘step in the right direction.’
Though both agree that it will cut down numbers of abusers in the state, Bergen-Cico is still unsure as to how the university will ultimately be affected.
‘It will help in New York, but there are students here from other states and countries as well,’ Bergen-Cico said. ‘We don’t know how far students will go to get these drugs, whether it’s Canada, New Jersey or Pennsylvania.’
Sullivan said there are still things in the proposal that need to be ironed out, but something certainly needs to be done due to the several harmful effects that come with prescription drug abuse, including comas and seizures.
Said Sullivan: ‘Death is certainly a possible outcome when dealing with these drugs.’
Published on January 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm
