Pubdate: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2004 Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: Rob Antle, CanWest News Service Cited: http://www.gov.nl.ca/releases/2004/health/0803n02.htm Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) NFLD. MAY RELEASE MEDICAL FILES TO POLICE Health Minister Says It Is Necessary To Fight Abuse Of Drugs Such As OxyContin Newfoundland and Labrador may give law-enforcement agencies access to suspicious medical information and may toughen its medical act to defuse what one police officer has called the "nuclear bomb" of the local drug trade. Both measures were among the 50 recommendations of a task force report on the prescription painkiller OxyContin. Current legislation allows the province to share medical information with police "when the protection of the public is an issue," Health Minister Elizabeth Marshall said. That data would include evidence of "double doctoring," where patients go to several physicians to get prescriptions. Ms. Marshall said she had asked Cabinet for the authority to provide information to police about such things as prescribing patterns. There will be "stringent criteria" governing the release of medical files, she added. "There's a concern with respect to people's right to privacy, and we're trying to balance that against the public good," she said. Cabinet will also look at toughening existing laws to grant medical authorities greater leeway in probing third-party complaints. Information sharing and collaboration between police and medical authorities are key, Ms. Marshall said. The government also said it will implement tamper-resistant prescription pads to meet another recommendation from the task force. The province struck the OxyContin task force late last year in the wake of high-profile court cases and a string of media reports on the drug. From 1997 to 2003, there were 17 accidental drug-related deaths in the province. Seven of those were related to OxyContin or its pharmaceutical cousins. Response to the work of the task force was positive. Dr. Andrew Major, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association (NLMA), said proposed changes to the medical act will make it easier to combat double-doctoring. Aiding in that effort will be the province-wide pharmacy network scheduled to go online in 2006. Tamper-resistant prescription pads are also an excellent interim measure until the network gets up and running, Dr. Major said. He also defended doctors' role in prescribing the drug, saying the "vast majority" of them appropriately dispense OxyContin. He said the NLMA has started an education program for physicians and other medical professionals about the painkiller. Police, meanwhile, lauded the recommendations, calling them "timely and appropriate." "We're hoping that some of the issues are of course expedited so that we can move on with the job," said Inspector Sean Ryan of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Insp. Ryan linked the OxyContin problem -- and the drug trade in general -- to a broader spike in the crime rate. "The drug problem is a contributing [factor] to many other problems, such as our property crime, our armed robberies, our muggings -- that sort of thing," he said. "So with some of the recommendations of the task force, that's certainly going to assist in a whole bunch of areas." He said many of the RNC's investigatory avenues are blocked by current rules on the release of medical files. "There are government agencies that have information they believe supports criminal activity, but yet by virtue of the existing legislation they cannot share that with us," he told reporters. "[That], in essence -- no pun intended -- handcuffs us from doing a thorough job." In June, RNC Constable Jason Sheppard -- a criminal intelligence officer assigned to monitor OxyContin abuse following the deaths of two addicts last year -- told a health conference: "OxyContin is a nuclear bomb compared to other drugs -- I haven't seen anything like this before." Const. Sheppard said the problem touched all strata of society. "I know people here in this city who are doing 10 or 12 (OxyContins) a day, one oxy-80 an hour," he told the conference. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin