Column - W.Va. lawmakers must crack down on prescription drug abuse

Many residents can testify to the rampant and destructive nature of narcotic addiction in the state.

In my personal experience, I've seen a number of intelligent and otherwise good people who have succumbed in one way or another to these powerful drugs.

Whether its usage resulted in jail time, accidental overdose or car accidents, this problem afflicts both the young and old alike.

Over the past decade, the U.S. has seen a sharp hike in the number of citizens who abuse prescription drugs, but the problem has been amplified in the Southwest and the Appalachian regions, where some states are seeing record numbers in the amount of drug overdoses.

Despite West Virginia being one of 37 states to implement a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), the Mountain State continues to lead the country in the number of drug overdoses per capita, of which 90 percent involve prescription drugs.

Launched in 2002, the PDMP provides pharmacists and health care providers with a database that tracks all prescriptions filled for controlled substances.

The logic behind the system is that doctors and pharmacists should be able to detect would-be "doctor shoppers" – people who frequent multiple health care providers to illegally obtain several prescriptions for the same ailment.

One problem with the current system is that many physicians fail to utilize it since there is no law requiring them to do so.

Additionally, prescription fills are only required to be reported once a week, giving drug dealers plenty of time to make their rounds before detection by authorities can occur.

Some state officials are seeking the passage of a law requiring doctors to check this database for potential drug shoppers before writing prescriptions.

A crackdown at home may make it more difficult to fill fraudulent prescriptions within the state, but those in the illegal drug trade will likely look elsewhere for their product.

The street sale of prescription narcotics has become so profitable that dealers are now taking flights to states with relaxed prescription laws to obtain pharmaceuticals.

The flight route between Huntington, W.Va., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is appropriately dubbed "The OxyContin Express," a well-known portal for such endeavors.

Some officials hope to counter prescription drug smuggling by sharing tracking information with neighboring states.

This will only be effective if every state chooses to participate. Those who don't will become havens for drug traffickers in the region.

With tougher laws expected to be imposed in Florida, we will likely see an increase in travel by narcotics dealers to states such as New Hampshire, which currently has no monitoring program being enforced.

Current laws have also fallen short in reducing another major supply of pharmaceuticals to the illegal market – those with legitimate ailments who sell their prescriptions for a profit.

A quick search on www.Drugstore.com for 10mg tablets of Hydrocodone, a prescription drug commonly abused and prescribed by doctors for moderate pain, shows that 180 tablets can be purchased for around $80. With street prices in West Virginia around $10 per tablet, one can easily see why some patients choose profit over pain management.

To understand why West Virginia is a national leader in illegal prescription drug abuse, one doesn't need to look much further than West Virginia's legal prescription drug problem.

With 18.4 prescriptions per capita filled in 2009, West Virginia has far exceeded the national average of 11.6 per capita – a trend that has become far too common in rural Appalachia.

Proactive monitoring of prescription sales and stiffer penalties for those who abuse the system may be important changes for the short term, but if lawmakers hope to achieve any substantial results, they need to tackle the underlying issue – the terrible health of West Virginians as a whole.

For decades, West Virginians have consistently settled at the lowest ranking spots in national health statistics. Our subpar health standards have led to record amounts of medication being prescribed.

According to IMS Health, a company that tracks the individual sale of prescriptions, the most commonly prescribed medication in the U.S. is Hydrocodone. With 131.2 million prescriptions dished out in 2010, it's inevitable that at least a portion of this profitable narcotic will end up on the street.

Until we can alleviate our health problems, we will be left with very few options in the campaign against prescription drug abuse.

West Virginians will continue to fall victim to these narcotics until legislators manage to strike a balance between restricting addictive medications and keeping them available for those who truly need it.