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Doctors and Nurses - Health care professionals<br>PHOTO:Star file

Doctors and Nurses - Health care professionals
PHOTO:Star file

Doctors Concerned About New Prescription Pill Law

By AP

FRANKFORT, KY - Some doctors are expressing concerns about new regulations that require them to meet tougher prescription standards in an effort to stop drug abuse.

Dr. Gregory Hood, a Lexington internist with the Kentucky chapter of the American College of Physicians, told The Kentucky Enquirer that the law passed earlier this year by legislators likely will mean some doctors will stop writing prescriptions for controlled substances that treat pain and anxiety.

Doctors and other medical professionals will have a chance on Wednesday during a hearing in Frankfort to express their concerns.

The statute passed by lawmakers this year said licensing boards should "police their own industry" and gave them until Sept. 1 to draft a final plan. Gov. Steve Beshear has signed emergency regulations that put measures into place until then.

Published 07:30 PM, Monday Aug. 13, 2012
Updated 06:01 AM, Wednesday Aug. 15, 2012

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- Name: Dan t.
  
  8/19/2012 11:33:44 PM
  
  D E m. I feel if someone comes inside our home 911 will be called. Only 3 live in our household & all have went though the training to carry concealed plus we have 5 handguns though out the house and a plan to go to one controlled room if we have a warning.
  
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  Name: D.E. m.
  
  8/19/2012 6:45:14 AM
  
  Good luck with your illness Dan. And if any junkie breaks in your house just make sure they don't walk out.
  
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  Name: Independent T.
  
  8/18/2012 1:43:40 PM
  
  Best to you Dan, in your treatment. And yes, anyone with pain medication in their homes are at risk, especially considering how quickly and easily criminals are released from jail these days. Of course they are looking for people to victimize, as they have been show clearly that any consequences will be nominal.
  
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  Name: Kyle W.
  
  8/17/2012 5:56:39 AM
  
  Probably Dan. Seems these days criminals have more rights than regular folk.
  
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  Name: Dan t.
  
  8/16/2012 11:09:23 PM
  
  Indy. Since I have drugs to help me through this cancer I'm glad our state has the Castle law so I can thumb a junkie if he or she thinks my house is easy picking. At this stage of cancer I would not worry long on enforcing the castle law. Almost feel like post my address but guess the lawyers would said I baited the trap....lol
  
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  Name: Dan t.
  
  8/16/2012 7:35:55 PM
  
  INDY Thanks for your reply on this.
  
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  Name: Independent T.
  
  8/16/2012 3:57:01 PM
  
  Dan, no one....and I mean NO ONE is trying to keep pain medication from cancer patients or the like. The argument that we are is the argument most use by junkies, then idiots.
  
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  Name: Dan t.
  
  8/15/2012 11:53:47 PM
  
  Indy (like those with cancer, etc) then you also must think that an epidemic of prescription drug addiction and abuse does not exist. Indy hope you never get cancer or one of your kin folk. You have no ideal what this type treatment is and can not believe you given brought in people who surfer cancer into your dump on pain relief.
  
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  Name: Kyle W.
  
  8/15/2012 1:11:10 AM
  
  And if doctors weren't so script happy maybe just maybe we wouldn't have so many addicted to pain meds to begin with. They aren't a cure all. And yes Indy was right they do pass out Loratabs by the bucket load. It doesn't start with the government it starts with lazy doctors and just want to get rich doctors.
  
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  Name: Kyle W.
  
  8/15/2012 1:06:38 AM
  
  Thank you Chris for pointing out the obvious. I know not everything is cureable but we don't need these "clinics" to dole out pain meds left and right. If you have an incureable condition that is causing pain then why can't your own family doctor do the script writing. Isn't that hard. Oh and he/she can take a minute to input it into the database to track it. Only those with crap to hide would be worried about their med use put into a computer. And like said before the morons that abuse are ruining it for the real folks who need it.
  
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  Name: Independent T.
  
  8/14/2012 11:26:51 AM
  
  If some of you think that Pain Management joints make their gazillions by treating the pain of chronic pain sufferers (like those with cancer, etc) then you also must think that an epidemic of prescription drug addiction and abuse does not exist. OOOOOOK.
  
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  Name: Estelle B.
  
  8/14/2012 10:02:47 AM
  
  Yep this is a huge problem and will hurt the people who do not abuse any drug but must take it to live any kind of normal life such as a cancer patient or someone with severe back problems. Some people who have these medical problems can not function at all without medications to help the pain. I think I read that doctors offices have to install or buy new equipment to use the system to track abusers so this is an extra cost that will more than likely be passed on down to patients if they even fool with it. I think several doctors will just not prescribe these medications anymore to keep from having to fool with any of it or take the risk of not catching something in all the paper work. So many people are going to be in pain over this. Seems to me that this could possibly increase the use of other drugs. After all if someone in my family was suffering I would find something some where to ease their pain and any of you would as well if you admitt it or not. Who wants to watch a parent suffer with bone cancer when there is something out there that could help?
  
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  Name: Mark S.
  
  8/14/2012 9:05:50 AM
  
  The big picture is that the drug users or people that do not obey the law ruins it for everyone. Any type of law will only make it harder for the good people to get what they need. Just like guns, no one goes to the gun store to purchase a new gun to kill someone, they buy it off the streets but we have to go through laws if we want to buy one. Laws are only for people that obey them not for the ones that breaks them on a daily basis.
  
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  Name: Chris M.
  
  8/14/2012 7:16:11 AM
  
  It is sad, the sheep posting here who roll over any time the government does something. "I have to show my ID when I buy Sudefed"..Why? Did every lawmaker who voted for that bill have a medical degree and know how much medicine you and your family need in a month? NO, they bowed to the wishes of thugs with badges to give them more power to harass and threaten people who have not harmed anyone else. They passed that bill to help turn every pharmacist into a informer. Just like in East Germany under the communists. Half the population was spying on the other half of the population. This is America, or it used to be. We used to be free, now we are little better than serfs in our own land.
  
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  Name: Chris M.
  
  8/14/2012 7:00:45 AM
  
  It is none of the government's business what medicines a person uses or why, until they commit violence or fraud against another person. Kyle, There are some incurable illnesses that cause chronic pain, that hurt never goes away. People have to try to live with the pain every day of their lives. Now that living has gotten harder. Pain is undertreated in the United States, no matter what Independent says about buckets of lortab. It does not happen. There are even shortages of some meds because the DEA will not allow the phama companies to make enough supply to meet the demand. They do need to pass the medical marijuana bill as soon as possible. It will be a safe, cheap alternative that will help lower healthcare costs. Government is always the problem, never the solution. End the war on (some) drugs.
  
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  Name: M G.
  
  8/14/2012 6:40:55 AM
  
  Hope they don't close the Pain Management Centers Of Paducah and Mariiiiiiiiiioooooooooooooooonnnnnnnn!!! I love that commercial!
  
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  Name: Dan t.
  
  8/13/2012 10:44:18 PM
  
  @ Indy You talk about Lortab by the bucket full.Heck I just had a neck operation in Nashville to remove some throat cancer and they DID give approx. one quart of liquid Lortab so I guess your right about getting it by the bucket full. lol
  
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  Name: Independent T.
  
  8/13/2012 9:23:17 PM
  
  All the Kentucky docs have to do is use the KASPER system to tell them how many doctors drug seeking patients are using to get drugs and at what pharmacies they are picking them up. Using KASPER it will even point to dentists who think its a good idea to give someone who gets a tooth pulled a bucket full of Lortab. I cant imagine that the pain management joints will go for this law. That's how they make all their millions.
  
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  Name: Kyle W.
  
  8/13/2012 8:59:11 PM
  
  That still doesn't cure anything. Still stuck with the same problem. People hurting and covering it up with drugs.
  
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  Name: J A.
  
  8/13/2012 8:52:42 PM
  
  Well what needs to be added in this law is that marijuana laws need to go away in order for people to use this medicine to supplement and/or ease their use of prescription medicine.
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  8/13/2012 8:08:35 PM
  
  Kyle w: it's now just the doctors, the drug companies via the FDA do everything possible to remove alternative medicines and practices. Who knows, they may soon make it illegal to pray over people.
  
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  Name: Kyle W.
  
  8/13/2012 8:03:24 PM
  
  Because Doctors are in with the Pharmaceuitcal Companies. The more they write the more the companies kickback. The problems start with Doctors not curing people but just covering up the pain.
  
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  Name: G R.
  
  8/13/2012 7:44:28 PM
  
  The doctor has to check that the patient has no other pain prescriptions before he writes a new prescription. That doesn't sound so difficult to me. I have to show my drivers license to buy Sudafed. If the pharmacies can check how much sudafed I have bought recently then how come the doctors can't check the system to see if I have already been prescribed a controlled substance?
  
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