Friday, November 16, 2018

Hartzler: One way we can fight the destructive opioid epidemic

(From Fourth District Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler)

The opioid epidemic is moving through our country with a fury. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to do everything we can to stop addiction before it begins and educate our friends and family about the dangers of being careless with painkillers.

I recently met with management and staff at the Walmart pharmacy in Butler to discuss the preventative measures the company is taking to combat opioid addiction. The pharmacy currently includes an educational handout with each opioid prescription, filled with prescription facts and instructions for using painkillers in a way that lowers the chance of addiction. Additionally, Walmart is working to prevent the cycle of medication overdoses and addiction by offering special DisposeRx kits at their pharmacies and on their website. When water and the DisposeRx powder are added to drugs in a prescription vial and shaken, the drugs are dissolved, rendering them unusable.

One of the issues employees raised was the lack of a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) in Missouri. I believe such a program would help prevent drug-shopping. There have been several documented cases of individuals from other states visiting Walmart pharmacies in Missouri to take advantage of the lack of monitoring and load up on prescription drugs, which only fuels the opioid epidemic.



The good news is that, despite the lack of a statewide PDMP, many Missouri pharmacies are able to work with individual counties that have monitoring programs. In this way, the pharmacists are acting as gatekeepers, able to monitor other pharmacies’ dispensing of certain drugs and whether an individual has had multiple prescriptions of the same drug filled in a short timespan. This type of program is just one way we can fight this destructive epidemic.

1 comment:

Harvey Hutchinson said...

A Prescription Monitoring System is badly needed. MO is the ONLY state without one. Of course 65% of opioids are on the street, and come in from Mexican border, one of many reasons the Wall us imperative!

Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice and tex