State has no money to track prescription flow

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published January 18, 2009

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In 2007, the state Legislature voted to create a database that would help doctors and law enforcement agencies track prescriptions for controlled substances issued to anyone in the state.

The program was designed to curb abuse of controlled substances — such as OxyContin — that are legally prescribed.

However, no money was allocated for the program and it was never implemented.

Steven Saxe, director of health professions and facilities for the state Department of Public Health, said the database would allow doctors to determine whether a patient was "doctor shopping" — obtaining controlled substances from multiple prescribers.

The program was aimed at curbing abuse of all controlled substances that are legally prescribed. That includes controlled substances such as oxycodone — the active ingredient in OxyContin; Percocet and Percodan — and benzo-diazepines such as Xanax and Valium, both anti-anxiety drugs.

The legislation authorizing the drug-monitoring program required that the database provide dispensers of prescriptions with "real time" information on a patient's prescription history.

Information in the database would be available to law enforcement officers and prosecutors, provided that they were "engaged in a bona fide specific investigation involving a designated person," according to the bill.

No money has been allocated to create the database, and Gov. Chris Gregoire did not provide funding for it in her draft budget for 2009, Saxe said.

Saxe said the prescription monitoring program approved for Washington was similar to ones already in place in Kentucky, Idaho, Nevada and Maine. According to data from the state Department of Health, 29 states have operational prescription monitoring programs.

Saxe conceded that finding the $680,000 it would cost to develop the database would be difficult, given that the state faces a budget shortfall of at least $5.7 billion in the next two years.

Lt. Loreli Thompson, Thurston County's drug task force commander, said such a database would help law enforcement officers track the illegal diversion of controlled substances that are prescribed by physicians but widely abused.

"I'd really like to see something like that," Thompson said. "With the issues we're having with addiction and abuse of prescription pills, it seems like that would be a worthwhile project."