Lawmakers Pass Drug Control Measures

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...The House voted 81-7 Thursday to approve Speaker Greg Stumbo’s bill which would move control of the state’s electronic prescription monitoring program to the Attorney General’s office from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the state Board of Medical Licensure. Stumbo and other critics say the board has not been aggressive enough in using it. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-1 to leave control of the program with the health cabinet. Sponsors of both bills say they remain optimistic that the 2012 General Assembly will ultimately pass a measure to deal with a problem that claims the lives of nearly 1,000 Kentuckians a year through the overprescribing of prescription drugs, but it’s unclear what final form such a bill will take. Senator Ray Jones, D-Pikeville, said about 82 Kentuckians die each month from prescription drug abuse, and that allowing the licensure board to write regulations for doctor participation in KASPER “is like letting the fox run the henhouse.”