Cracking Down on Prescription Drug Abuse

The Assembly, Senate, governor and attorney general have reached an agreement on historic, comprehensive legislation to crack down on prescription drug abuse.

Known as "I-STOP," the measure takes a giant step in combating "doctor shopping" and curbing prescription drug abuse.

It’s often very easy for a person to get the same prescription from different doctors filled at different pharmacies, without the doctors or pharmacists knowing.

This new law would include provisions to overhaul the way prescription drugs are distributed and tracked in New York State. One important element of the proposal is a real-time database for prescription-drug monitoring which would allow doctors and pharmacists to know exactly which drugs have already been prescribed and dispensed to patients.

Illicit use of prescription medicine has become one of the nation’s fast-growing dug problems. According to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 15,000 people die every year of overdoses due to prescription painkillers.  In 2012, 1 in 20 people in the United States over the age of 11 reported using prescription painkillers for non-medical reasons in the past year. Moreover, an estimated 70 percent of people who abuse prescription painkillers obtained them from friends or relatives who originally received the medication from a prescription.

I-STOP will help keep our families safer and healthier. I look forward to supporting this legislation when it reaches the Assembly floor.