Pubdate: Thu, 18 Dec 2003
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2003 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159

TASK FORCE A GOOD START

Prescription drugs when abused can kill and debilitate just as readily as 
street drugs. It's estimated that on average five people die each day in 
Florida because of prescription drug abuse. That's more than 1,800 people a 
year. Thousands more face loss of jobs, loss of family and loss of sanity 
because they are hooked on prescription drugs.

Fortunately, there's a growing awareness in the upper echelons of state 
government that prescription drug abuse needs to be addressed with greater 
vigor. A task force of top state officials is being formed to develop new 
methods and strategies on how to deal with the problem.

The task force has not been named, but it undoubtedly will include Attorney 
General Charlie Crist, who is making the issue one of his top priorities. 
Others likely to sit on the task force are Department of Health Secretary 
John Agwunobi, Agency on Health Care Administration Secretary Rhonda 
Meadows and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Secretary Guy Tunnell.

They'll have the ear of Gov. Jeb Bush, who has taken a keen interest in 
drug issues dating back to his 1998 campaign for governor. The issue has 
touched the governor personally. His daughter Noelle has completed a drug 
rehabilitation program.

A South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation, "Drugging the Poor," recently 
shed light on the problem. Among other things, it found that fewer than 3 
percent of the state's physicians wrote the prescriptions for more than 
two-thirds of the narcotics and other dangerous drugs used by Medicaid 
patients.

Many had histories of professional and even criminal misconduct or were 
linked to multiple drug-related deaths. An oncologist regularly writing 
prescriptions for a powerful painkiller like OxyContin is one thing. A 
dermatologist regularly prescribing it is something else again.

Fighting drug abuse, prescription or otherwise, requires a three- pronged 
approach: prevention, rehabilitation and law enforcement. Patients and 
health professionals must be educated to the dangers and pitfalls. Addicts 
must be given a chance for rehabilitation. Pill pushers and others who seek 
to bilk the government or flood the black market with prescription drugs, 
however, need to be punished severely.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart