The prescription drug pandemic

It took five minutes and 47 seconds for Michael Israel to hear that there were no beds available for him in rehab. Mo­ments later, following the sounds of a shotgun, Avi Israel held his son for the last time as his addic­tion to prescription drugs came to a fatal conclusion.

The misuse and abuse of prescription drugs is a hot button issue in this year's legislative session, but lately the tables have turned. The issue has shifted from blaming the addicts to questioning the practices of medical professionals state-wide.

The story of Michael Israel is just one of the thousands that exist in New York State. Accord­ing to Avi and Julie Israel, Michael's parents, their son's role was only a small part of what caused him to ultimately commit suicide. The Israels blame their son's death on a "flawed" health care system in New York State.

This system is one where doc­tors do not talk to other doctors before prescribing meds, and where pharmacists do not warn about the danger of mixing cer­tain drugs together.

Then there is Tim Kroll, who took his own life at 19. Accord­ing to his mother Teri, he was a straight edge kid before he was prescribed pain medication.

When Tim told his doctor that those medications were ineffec­tive, his doctor replaced them with several different drugs.

When Ms. Kroll realized Tim was addicted to the prescrip­tions, she took him to a different doctor, who cut him off of pain medication completely. Drug de­pendent, Tim took to street drugs.

On Aug. 29, 2010, Ms. Kroll found Tim barely breathing. Tim, who had said weeks before that he wished to become an advocate for drug prevention, committed suicide to escape the life his ad­diction had created.

According to Giselle Jackman from Prevention Focus, an orga­nization devoted to drug preven­tion education, says that trust and ignorance may be at fault.

"People trust their doctors," Jackman said at a NYS Senate Round Table meeting on Feb. 13, "and doctors don't think they're harming the patient."

Jackman suggests that doc­tors delay controlled substance prescriptions until absolutely necessary so an addiction is not triggered.

Doctors and pharmacists be­lieve the issue should be solved by changing the prescription process.

An increase in access to health care, per President Obama's Af­fordable Care Act, has increased access to medication.

Despite the increased avail­ability to medication, Jeffrey Reynolds from the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence says the issue is "completely preventable."

Reynolds, at the same Round Table, cites pharmacy shoot­ings on Long Island as evidence that prescription drug abuse is a growing, and already very real, problem. Himself, along with Dr. Joseph Sacco of Albany and Dr. Donald Moore of the Medical Society of the State of New York, agree that the solution is a shift in technology.

The database that tracks pre­scriptions filled, doctors seen, number of prescriptions of one patient, etc. -- is not updated im­mediately after each event. This, according to Terry O'Leary of the Bureau of Narcotics Enforce­ment, can lead to patients partici­pating in "doctor shopping."

In other words, a system that does not immediately update allows patients to receive care from multiple physicians.

This provides the patient with a surplus of prescrip­tions, and consequently, drugs.

According to Tomson George, a representative from Walgreens, this is especially difficult for pharmacists.

A pharmacist can not raise red flags if they do not know the patient's history.

At the same time, even if they do have access to what a patient is prescribed, they do not know if an unordinary amount of pre­scriptions is the result of a series of unfortunate events on the patient's end.

All professionals listed above were part of that Senate Health Round Table meeting, but they all agreed on at least two points.