The Hill News

Prescription drug abuse is an epidemic that cannot be ignored. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drugs are now involved in more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. Physicians are serious about combating this epidemic, but we can’t do it alone.
 
The National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) bill was signed into law in 2005 to give physicians an effective tool to help address drug diversion. This legislation was designed to create prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) in each state so physicians could access important information to help them appropriately treat their patients’ pain or illness while helping to prevent the abuse and diversion of controlled substances. Unfortunately, the program was never fully funded and never realized its full potential.

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