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. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart