Using Prescription Monitoring Programs to prevent prescription drug abuse, misuse, and diversion

Meelee Kim, MA

ATOD Section Newsletter Editor

The current National Survey on Drug Use and Health results point to a rise in non-medical use of prescription drugs from 2.5 percent of the population in 2008 to 2.8 percent in 2009. Nearly one-third of people age 12 and over who used drugs for the first time in 2009 began by using a prescription drug non-medically. Illicit drug use increased from 5 percent to 12 percent among active duty military service members over a three-year period from 2005 to 2008, primarily attributed to prescription drug abuse. While motor vehicle accidents have historically been the leading cause of death due to injuries in the United States, 17 states and the District of Columbia are now seeing drug‐induced deaths as the leading cause of injury deaths.   

“These results are a wake-up call to the nation. Our strategies of the past appear to have stalled out with generation ‘next.’ Parents and caregivers, teachers, coaches, faith and community leaders, must find credible new ways to communicate with our youth about the dangers of substance abuse.” -  SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, JD

State Prescription Monitoring Programs, or PMPs, have great potential to help curb and prevent prescription drug abuse, misuse and deaths because they can serve as a public health and public safety tool. Currently, there are 48 states and a U.S. territory that have legislation in place that enables the implementation of a PMP.  While PMPs vary from state to state, they share a common denominator: the potential to (1) serve as a tool for better patient care and treatment; (2) serve as an early warning system of drug epidemic; (3) and assist law enforcement in cases of prescription drug diversion.      

For more information on how state PMPs can have an impact on the prescription drug epidemic, please visit the PMP Center of Excellence at Brandeis University website: http://www.pmpexcellence.org/.