The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration declared that the explosion of illegal trafficking of prescription drugs is not just a problem it is an epidemic. In September of 2011 Westchester county Police officer was arrested for being involved with an Oxycodone ring operating through the county airport. This powerful opiate is the most widely abused prescription drug.
The deaths from prescription drugs in this country rose by 153 percent over the past 10 years. Oxycodone was responsible for about 176,000 emergency room visits in 2009. The Lower Hudson Valley is experiencing a rise in painkiller addiction. Oxycodone prescriptions filled in Westchester increased 31 percent from 2008 to 2010. Ambien grew by 25 percent, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
New York inpatient rehabs need to be prepared to dealing with addicts of painkillers and other prescription medications.
What he is doing now is promoting the Internet system for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act, dubbed, “I-STOP”. This is an online database that doctors and pharmacists may use to track frequently abused drugs.
Schneiderman said, “We’re hoping the legislature will pass I-STOP to effectively combat the epidemic of prescription drugs plaguing our communities while effectively treating patients, identifying and helping addicts and fighting trafficking.”
If this system would have been in place it would have helped prevent get o the bottom of a long term operation that led to the conviction of a Bronx resident who forged more than 250 prescriptions for narcotics. This one operation netted prescriptions being created on paper stolen from New York City area hospitals, filled in twenty counties statewide and then the illegal distribution of $200,000 in controlled substances.
Drug rehabs in Buffalo and other New York cities have been impacted.
His promoting this I_STOP is an action that should be taken all over the nation.
