Comments on: Prescription drug abuse – A large and growing problem with a very simple solution

By: a deluxe hell doll

a deluxe hell doll — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:18:17 +0000

As a person who is currently on highly addictive and potentially deadly prescripton drugs I must ask.. “Why do we as patients have to sign our prescriptions before we pick up our medication? What is the point of signing anything?”
I recently had a prescription go missing and wasnt sure if it was stolen or just mislaid. I found out that there is no way of checking to find out if it had been taken to a pharmacy and filled. There are so many holes in the current system – A system that seems to have created a culture of legitimate govt. subsidised drug abuse and dealing.
Setting up a computer based cross referencing system where prescripitions can be tracked would be such a simple thing to do. I dont know of any doctors who dont use a computer to keep patient records, nor have i been to a pharmacy with non computer assisted dispensing and record keeping.
So why are there so many ways to be a drug addict in Australia? I believe it is because there are so many people out there who have serious problems that the health dept. KNOWS that all kinds of mayhem would break loose if they were all suddenly CUT OFF. There are many people profiting from this legitimate drug dealing. They aren’t saying anything at all and hoping this all goes away.

By: bjcirceleb

bjcirceleb — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:12:36 +0000

While I totally agree that something can be done, one line does need to be taken out of that post and that is people using drugs at above accepted theraputic limits. The vast majority of people on psychotropic medications are on them at above theraputic limits, and the vast majority of them are forced to take them. The vast majority are also having them prescribed off label. When the government allows prescriptions to be written (as they require authority for these prescriptions) and pharmacists are able to fill them then people will continue to die from preventable deaths. These medications can be toxic enough, but when they are being prescribed at non tested ranges, often 2, 3 and 4 times those levels, one really wonders how it is allowed to happen. Further antipsychotic medications, despite being the most toxic outside of chemotherapy drugs for cancer do not have any information leaflets in them. Hence the amount of off label prescriptions that are being written, without people even knowing about it is huge.

Antipsychotics are routinely prescribed for preschoolers with autism, it sedates them, but one would expect that valium would do the same thing with significanlty less risks. Over 98% of these prescriptions are claimed on the PBS, which requires a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Given that we have an epidemic of children now with schizophrenia, given how many of these prescriptions are being written with that diagnosis given, one would think that someone in authority is asking questions, but they are not.

While there is no doubt that the government has a hell of alot of information about people’s prescribing habits, it is much more complicated than just allowing information sharing. There also needs to be real limits made to how and when people are prescribed certain medications, especially when they are funded by the taxpayer and one automatically thinks that they are OK and safe, as they are not just able to be prescribed, but also covered under the PBS.

By: Dr Joe

Dr Joe — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:51:49 +0000

Thanks for highlighting this issue Martin. Further deaths will be on the hands of the Federal health minister ,who for whatever reason,refuses to act. As a doctor it is impossible to get useful information and pharmacists are in the same boat. Yet the government has the information-it IS there. It just needs to be made available to front line healthcare practitioners who need it.