{Orlando, Florida}...Kentucky has one of the nation's highest rates of prescription drug overdose deaths, with more than 1,000 each year. Speaking at a drug summit in Florida Tuesday, Governor Steve Beshear told the group that, if the nation is going to crack down on pill mills and painkiller abuse, the 50 states need to link their prescription drug monitoring programs. Beshear told 700 people at the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit in Orlando that prescription painkiller abuse is "a scourge and an epidemic" that is "causing untold misery on families, filling jails and treatment centers and draining our resources." The three-day summit at Walt Disney World was organized by the Kentucky-based Operation UNITE and includes government officials, law enforcement officers, pharmacists and doctors.Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Beshear Proposes National Painkiller Monitoring
{Orlando, Florida}...Kentucky has one of the nation's highest rates of prescription drug overdose deaths, with more than 1,000 each year. Speaking at a drug summit in Florida Tuesday, Governor Steve Beshear told the group that, if the nation is going to crack down on pill mills and painkiller abuse, the 50 states need to link their prescription drug monitoring programs. Beshear told 700 people at the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit in Orlando that prescription painkiller abuse is "a scourge and an epidemic" that is "causing untold misery on families, filling jails and treatment centers and draining our resources." The three-day summit at Walt Disney World was organized by the Kentucky-based Operation UNITE and includes government officials, law enforcement officers, pharmacists and doctors.