From U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL):

President Bush Signs Sessions’ Prescription Drug Monitoring Bill 

            WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2005 -- On Thursday President Bush signed legislation sponsored by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) designed to help states prevent prescription drug abuse.

            Entitled the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act, the legislation creates a federal grant program to help establish or improve state-run prescription drug monitoring programs.  Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) was chief Senate co-sponsor of the legislation. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) introduced the legislation in the House of Representatives. The legislation cleared Congress late last month. 

            “The abuse and diversion of prescription drugs is a tremendous public health issue for our nation, and the problem is growing,” Sessions said. “An epidemic that first attracted public notice as a regional crisis has spread to every kind of community. Prescription drugs now rank second only to marijuana in the incidence of abuse. I believe my bill will provide states with resources and guidance to help their established programs to minimize the abuse and diversion of prescription medications while ensuring patients’ access to timely, effective treatment.”

             Sessions said that while press coverage has frequently focused on the abuse and diversion of OxyContin and other narcotic pain relievers, the problem extends to several classes of commonly prescribed drugs, including tranquilizers and stimulants. It’s estimated that more than 6 million Americans are current abusers of prescription drugs that fall within these three classes.

            Nineteen states currently have operating prescription drug monitoring programs. According to the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws, an additional 24 states are actively pursuing program establishment. Alabama passed legislation last year to establish a program which is expected to be operating by next year.

            A 2002 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests that these individual state programs have been quite successful, but the report also clearly describes the limitations of the current approach.  For example, while patients can and do cross state lines regularly to seek appropriate medical treatments calling for prescription drugs, others travel to neighboring states for the purpose of gaining inappropriate access to these medications. The scope of the problem is unknown, because not all states have programs in place, and existing programs are not yet equipped to efficiently and effectively share information across state lines.

            Sessions said the ultimate aim of his bill is to make it possible to share the information across all state lines while maintaining the privacy of individual patients’ medical records. The law authorizes $60 million through 2011 for state drug monitoring programs.