While experienced criminal defense lawyers nationwide see drug cases on a regular basis, West Virginia has the highest number of overdose incidents arising from the misuse of prescription drugs in the entire country. Time and again, several initiatives have been spearheaded, trying to spread awareness about the issue and mobilize the community into accepting responsibility for their actions. While most of these endeavors are positive strides in the right direction, they focus their attention on people who abuse these drugs.
However, not much is being done to draw attention to the supply of prescription drugs, which happens to be a key piece in this nationwide problem. In most cases, unethical doctors are the culprits. They are more interested in making big bucks by selling these drugs rather than being true to their profession and helping their patients feel better.
There are also medical practitioners who prescribe more pills to a patient than necessary or fall prey to ‘doctor shoppers’ – people who get several physicians to prescribe them controlled substances in a short period of time.
Given the situation, it is heartening to see the medical community step up and do what is necessary to curb the problem. More and more doctors are joining the fight against drug abuse and taking steps to ensure they do not, inadvertently or intentionally, contribute to it.
Take for instance the pain management policy launched a year ago at St. Mary’s Medical Center. According to their policy, emergency room physicians are only allowed to prescribe enough pills that will help patients in severe pain tide over until they are able to get in touch with their primary care physician for an evaluation. In addition, they are also encouraged to keep their eyes open for fake IDs and people indulging in doctor shopping.
This initiative was rolled out by St. Mary’s Medical Center at their Ironton campus and recently, it was also implemented in the Huntington campus. Tiny steps such as these are sure to help control the supply of prescription drugs and make a substantial dent in this nationwide epidemic.
