White House unveils plan to cut Rx abuse

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration unveiled a plan Tuesday to fight prescription drug abuse, noting that accidental overdose deaths now exceed those of the crack epidemic of the 1980s and black tar heroin in the 1970s combined.

The program includes boosting awareness among patients and health care providers, cracking down on pill mills and "doctor shopping," and requiring drug manufacturers to develop education programs for doctors as well as patients.

Gil Kerlikowske, the White House director of national drug-control policy, warned that accidental drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in 17 states and represent an "unbelievably complex problem."

"The toll our nation's prescription drug-abuse epidemic has taken in communities nationwide is devastating," he said.

The plan calls on every state to develop a prescription drug-monitoring program and encourages them to share the information with other states. Thirty-five states already have such monitoring programs in place, Kerlikowske said.

It recommends convenient ways to remove unused medications from the home. Kerlikowske noted that seven out of 10 prescription drug abusers obtained their drugs from friends or relatives.

The plan also calls for the drug control policy office and the Drug Enforcement Administration to step up enforcement by targeting training to states with the highest need. Law enforcement agencies and the lawmakers who represent them have long complained that clinics where pain medication often is dispensed without prescriptions, or "pill mills," contribute heavily to the prescription drug epidemic.

Kerlikowske vowed to "take action against these rogue pain clinics." He said his office would ask Congress for an increase in funding for drug prevention of $123 million and for treatment of $99 million for 2012, to train primary health care providers to intervene in emerging cases of drug abuse and to expand and improve specialty care for addiction.