The province of Ontario in Canada hopes to counter a disturbing increase in prescription drug abuse with a new database designed to detect fraud and lower the rates of drug addiction. The database will target such narcotic painkillers as OxyContin and Percocet, as well as Ritalin and sedatives like Valium.
The Canadian Health Minister said the database will flag unusual patterns of prescribing and dispensing. The proper authorities would then relay that information to either the College of Physicians and Surgeons or the police. The database will target physicians, pharmacists, and people who are abusing the system.
"People who are addicted to narcotics will be able to tell you what doctors don’t ask questions, where you can go to get a prescription filled with very few questions asked, pharmacies that will turn a bit of a blind eye to suspected forgeries," said Health Minister Deb Matthew. "And it will catch individuals who are double doctoring and accessing multiple pharmacies."
The new system is expected to be working by the spring of 2011 and cost the Canadian government about $1 million dollars. A smaller version of the system is already in place for the 2.8 million recipients of the Ontario Drug Benefit Program.
Since 2004, the number of oxycodone-related deaths in the province has nearly doubled. The median age of patients who die in a drug related incident is 40 years old.
