By Tonia Rose – Staff Writer
Florida is among 11 states without electronic means to track the dispensing of controlled substances, but as of May, a new law was passed by the Florida General Assembly and has Kentucky lawmakers hoping the pill pipeline will cease.
During a sentencing hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Ashland, Judge David L. Bunning told convicted drug dealers Roger Martin Jr., and Jason Clay Carter that he is hopeful the new law will curb Kentuckians appetite for prescription drugs.
“I have been advised the state of Florida is going to adopt rules that I hope will curtail the problem of drugs being piped from Florida to Kentucky,” Judge Bunning said. “This has become an epidemic, and we must get a handle on it before more lives are destroyed.”
The drug epidemic has mounted by the day as people from Rowan, Carter and Elliott counties travel in planes, buses and vans to Florida’s pill mill to visit doctors prescribing hundreds of pain pills for cash.
And although the prescriptions are obtained legally, traffickers carry the drugs back to the Bluegrass and sell them on the streets, causing numerous drug-related court cases, convictions – and even deaths blamed on overdoses.
The trips are made in attempts to escape KASPER (Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system), which tracks those prescribing, dispensing and receiving drugs.
The legislation now goes to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for his signature. According to the Associated Press, Crist hasn’t taken a public position on the bill, yet.
Providing he signs the bill, Kentucky officials will supply Florida with the software used for KASPER, and then the two states can share information about prescriptions.
Since Florida’s legislation does not include money to operate the program, Florida officials are expected to seek private funding as well as apply for money through Rep. Hal Rogers’ prescription drug monitoring program and NASPER, a program supported by Rep. Ed Whitfield.
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Tags: prescribing, Prescription Electronic Reporting system, prescriptions
Posted August 3, 2009 by admin under E-Prescription, Electronic Prescription
