In Missouri, a Showdown Over Creating an Opioid Database

Date Posted: February 25, 2017

Posted In: Ideas, News, Workforce,

Missouri is only U.S. state to lack a database to monitor prescription drugs

From the Wall Street Journal: Advocates for tighter control of opioid painkillers are turning up the pressure on state lawmakers to establish a database to monitor prescriptions in Missouri, the only U.S. state to lack one.

Studies show , can help stop addicts from obtaining prescriptions from multiple doctors. A bill to create such a database in Missouri passed out of committee in the state Senate this month and is awaiting a floor debate.

Proponents of the bill include Missouri associations of pharmacies, hospitals, nurses and physicians, who say the state’s lack of prescription monitoring makes it a destination for out-of-state drug seekers.

Ron Fitzwater, chief executive of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, says his member pharmacies often complain about people from as far away as Florida coming to Missouri to . “They know we don’t have a prescription-monitoring system,” he says. “Sometimes there will be a carload of them.”