St. Louis County’s prescription drug monitoring program marked its one-year anniversary with data showing that opioids are still vastly overprescribed and that opioid overdose deaths in the region reached a record high last year. The report said that enough painkillers are prescribed in the county for every adult and child to get three pills a month.
Although the statistics are grim, there is at least a record of what is prescribed, how often, by whom and for whom. Before the program, there was an information void that prevented policymakers from identifying a major source of the addiction epidemic. The program also issued alerts for nearly 14,000 instances involving someone filling three different prescriptions at three different pharmacies over six months, indicating possible doctor-shopping or drug abuse.
Pharmacists say that without such alerts, patients with chronic pain conditions may not realize they are at risk for overdose or on a track to becoming addicted. Doctors and pharmacists are also able to check the database to look up a patient’s prescription history, and doctors can see whether fraudulent prescriptions have been issued in their names.
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Still, the St. Louis area racked up between 700 and 800 opioid overdose deaths last year. Authorities noted that most were from illegal substances such as heroin laced with highly lethal fentanyl, not from prescription painkillers.
The results show that keeping a tight check on prescription painkillers doesn’t cure drug addiction, but it does help track and document opioid prescription abuse.
Nationwide, opioid painkiller prescriptions fell about 9 percent between 2016 and 2017, the largest decrease in decades. But doctors and patients have opposed sweeping legal or regulatory changes that would require limiting dosages and durations of painkillers for acute cases.
Absent federal action, governors and state legislatures are imposing changes. At least 23 states have enacted laws restricting prescriptions to a supply ranging from three to 14 days. The St. Louis County report showed that opioids are prescribed regionally for an average of 16 days.
After years of legislative inaction on a statewide monitoring program, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens last July signed an executive order forming one. State officials said they began receiving data in December on dispensing records of controlled substances by doctors and pharmacists. The data led authorities to open investigations.
The program, based on prescribing information from Express Scripts, has not yet released findings. No Missouri doctors were disciplined last year for overprescribing opioids, the Post-Dispatch’s Blythe Bernhard reported.
Missouri should follow the example of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who signed a law in March limiting most painkiller prescriptions to three days. Missouri lawmakers have been slow to stop the scourge of painkiller abuse that leads to drug addiction. Nearly 60 Missouri cities and counties have joined St. Louis County’s program, but they need state support to impose corrective action.
