NOPE is no stranger to fighting for legislation that reduces our nation’s drug abuse problems. Lately, the organization has joined the battle to keep Florida’s drug database on the books.
By Karen Perry
At the entrance to the NOPE office in West Palm Beach, Fla. is a wall filled with faces of those who died of drug overdoses, many looking forever happy in photos taken when long life seemed so certain.
These faces motivate us at Narcotics Overdose Prevention & Education (NOPE) Task Force to advocate for meaningful reforms at the state and federal levels in combating the proliferation of illegal drugs and the unlawful distribution of powerful prescription pills.
Lately, our efforts have focused on a remarkable shift in Florida’s main weapon against pill mills, the so-called rogue pain management clinics blamed for excessively dispensing powerful painkillers and fueling the illegal spread of prescription drugs throughout the Southeast.
On the morning of February 8, many of us at NOPE awoke to news that Gov. Rick Scott was moving to abolish a computer database that would track every prescription for narcotic drugs. He intended to repeal the 2009 law that would let doctors, pharmacists and others check whether a patient has received excessive narcotics prescriptions. His reason: the database was expensive to maintain and could violate the privacy of individuals.
Scott's proposal stunned our network of legislators, law enforcement officials and other advocates who fought with us for eight years -- yes, eight years -- until Florida finally adopted the same tool that 39 other states use to track the illegal distribution of narcotic drugs from pain clinics.
Many of us spent those eight years writing letters, attending rallies, driving to Tallahassee and pleading with legislators to pass the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, or PDMP. We were driven by the conviction that this database will reduce "doctor shopping" and save thousands of lives.
For us, especially me, this fight was very personal. My 21-year-old son died of a drug overdose from prescription pills and heroin in 2003. His death galvanized me to prevent more senseless overdose deaths. Creating a drug-monitoring program has been my passion and labor ever since.
NOPE is no stranger to fighting for legislation that reduces our nation’s drug abuse problems.
We have advocated for creating a 911 Good Samaritan law in Florida to provide limited immunity from prosecution for people who report overdoses to the authorities. We also have looked at encouraging legislators to require that anyone brought into a Florida hospital with a drug overdose be compelled to participate in a substance abuse assessment by a licensed service provider.
But creating the prescription drug database has been our strongest cause.
That morning in February, many NOPE supporters called us and posted on our Facebook page their outrage over the sudden decision to do away with the PDMP.
Barbara Constantino Raynor of North Carolina wrote: “That is crazy. It is difficult enough to get the doctors to stop giving narcotics to...everyone, at least this makes them accountable for what they are doing.”
“What a shock,” added Jill Levenson of Florida.
Within hours, we mobilized a facts-sheet and began talking to policy makers and the news media about the impact of the governor’s decision. I went to Tallahassee again to speak with key legislators.
As of this writing, we haven’t yet swayed the governor to overturn his opposition to the database. But NOPE and our network has helped bring renewed focus on prescription drug abuse, making it a leading news story across Florida and other states.
Perhaps the media attention got the governor thinking.
Weeks into the battle over the database, he and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi created a pill mill task force that will pull resources from state agencies to solve problems with prescription-drug abuse.
No matter what happens, we will keep the email, social media and phone chains going.
We can’t stop now.
That wall of faces in our office is there for a reason.
If you value NOPE Task Force’s commitment to preventing drug overdoses, please consider a voluntary contribution to support the organization. Donate at www.nopetaskforce.org/donations.asp
Karen Perry is the executive director of NOPE Task Force. You can reach her at kperry@nopetaskforce.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment