Prescription drug abuse crackdown

WWLP TV

Updated: Feb 1, 2012 8:17 PM

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) — You’ve heard of Generation X, well how about Generation RX?   The symbol for prescription drugs and a growing source of addiction for many young people.

“Generation RX.  The culture of drug use changed when the pills were introduced back in the late 90s,” said Learn to Cope Executive Director Joanne Peterson, who reflected on a family member who battled prescription drug addiction almost a decade ago. 

Peterson supports a Senate bill that requires Massachusetts doctors to register with the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program – A program that keeps track of patient drug histories and puts them on watch lists if they exceed a set number of re-fills from different doctors.

“We set the bar high here, but the danger is even higher,” said U.S. Rep. William Keating (D-Massachusetts 10th).

A Drug Enforcement Agency fact sheet says prescription drugs account for more overdoses deaths than cocaine or heroin nationwide, and that 63 percent of teens believe they’re easy to acquire from friends or the family medicine cabinet.

“We hear from kids now that are in recovery that started with pills before they drank, or before they tried marijuana, and they got them in school in the bathroom or on the school bus,” said Peterson.

A provision in the Senate bill that prevents drug fills for prescriptions from so-called pill-mill states has been dropped.  But Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) said it will likely be debated on the Senate floor. 

“People travel so frequently that they would not be able to have their prescriptions with them if they were traveling, say back and forth to Florida,” said Murray, explaining why some lawmakers do not believe the provision should be in the bill.  “We know that Florida is a major pill-mill. We know people take buses down there and they take the drugs and bring them here and sell them.”

The Senate is scheduled to debate the prescription drug abuse bill on Thursday.

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