North Carolina citizens are dying of prescription drug overdoses. Lots of citizens.
Published April 3, 2013
By: Donald Metzger, PA-C
President, North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants
We have a problem: North Carolina citizens are dying of prescription drug overdoses. Lots of citizens.
As of 2008, NC’s drug overdose rate was 12.9 per 100,000 individuals over the age of 12. Our overdose rate was higher than that of South Carolina; higher than that of Virginia; and in fact higher than the overdose rate of 24 states. In that same year, prescription painkillers were involved in 14,800 overdose deaths in the U.S.—more than cocaine and heroin combined.
According to the U.S Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it’s part of a prescription drug overdose epidemic.
The misuse of prescription drugs continues to grow—in 2010, 2 million people in the U.S. reported using prescription painkillers non-medically (i.e. recreationally) for the first time within the last year. That’s nearly 5,500 new users each day.
It’s not that North Carolina hasn’t taken steps to curb the misuse of prescription drugs: in 2006 our General Assembly adopted the North Carolina Controlled Substances Reporting System Act. That law established a voluntary statewide controlled substance reporting system (CSRS) to track the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances. This year, the legislature is considering three new bills to strengthen CSRS requirements—but resolution on those could take months, and implementation even longer.
Meanwhile people keep dying from prescription drug overdoses. We can’t afford to wait.
That’s why the North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants is partnering with Project Lazarus to encourage every licensed Physician Assistant in the state to voluntarily become part of the CSRS. Physician Assistants are often on the front lines in patient care, and can be effective in the early identification of prescription drug misuse. With more than 5000 Physician Assistants licensed to practice in North Carolina, their use of the CSRS can make a huge impact.
It’s part of a grass-roots effort to make the prevention of prescription drug misuse a community responsibility in North Carolina. With the help of our front-line health care providers, community leaders, and an informed citizenry, I believe we can work together to solve this problem. I am proud to be a Physician Assistant and to know that my colleagues and I are doing our part in preventing drug overdose deaths.
By: Donald Metzger, PA-C
President, North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants
References:
http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/rxbrief/
http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/controlledsubstance/csrs-law6-10.pdf
