State AG seeks prescription drug abuse stories
CANTON - Looking to bolster proposed legislation to rein in prescription drug abuse, state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is seeking personal anecdotes from people whose lives have been affected by the growing problem.
The attorney general’s office Monday launched a website, “Share Your I-STOP Story,” to showcase stories from people statewide who have been affected by what Mr. Schneiderman terms “an epidemic” of abuse in the north country and across the state.
“Numbers and statistics are important, but at the end of the day, the prescription drug crisis is about people,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a prepared statement.
The attorney general proposed in July that an online database be created that would monitor the prescription and distribution of controlled substances. Dubbed the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act, or I-STOP, the legislation would provide health-care practitioners and pharmacists with centralized information to avoid over-prescribing, help shut down prescription-drug trafficking and identify and treat patients who abuse prescription drugs.
In January, Mr. Schneiderman released a report that, using statistics from the state Department of Health Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, showed the opiate hydrocodone was the most commonly prescribed controlled drug in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties from 2008 to 2010, followed by another opiate, oxycodone.
The report shows that from 2007 to 2010, crisis admissions to drug-treatment programs related to the use of opiates more than doubled in Franklin County, from 40 cases to 94, and rose more than 170 percent in St. Lawrence County, from 105 cases to 281. Non-crisis admissions for opiate treatment over the same period nearly quadrupled in Franklin County, from 34 cases to 127, while they more than tripled in St. Lawrence County, from 137 cases to 424.
The report specifically cited Massena as a community affected by the crisis. It found that in the first three weeks of November, the village saw three suicides related to prescription drug use. From 1993 to 2007, village police investigated, on average, just one suicide a year. The report also shows violent crime has spiked in the village, a rise attributed by law enforcement officials to prescription drug abuse.
Mr. Schneiderman said the report proved there is a need for legislation to curb prescription drug abuse and now, as momentum for the legislation builds, his office wants to “put a human face on the issue.”
“The firsthand experiences of doctors, pharmacists, patients and family members prove that the status quo is not tenable,” Mr. Schneiderman said in his statement. “You can’t read these stories and not feel some urgency to improve our system and prevent more tragedies from happening in the future.”
Mr. Schneiderman’s efforts to pass the I-STOP legislation have been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., as well as 24 U.S. representatives across the state and has 30 state Senate and 40 Assembly sponsors, as well as support from several law enforcement organizations.
