{Frankfort, Kentucky}...State lawmakers say they are open to suggestions for changes in the controversial new law designed to crack down on Kentucky's increasing problem with prescription drug abuse. A legislative oversight committee on House Bill 1 heard Monday from Dr. Steven Stack, an emergency room doctor at St. Joseph East in Lexington who says doctors share the commitments of solving the drug abuse problem, but the measure and state regulations for it are overreaching and will restrict access by legitimate citizens to much needed relief of pain and suffering. Stack says an 80 year old woman who comes to an emergency room with a broken wrist doesn't need a KASPER report or extensive counseling on why she is to take pain medicine, as the law now requires. Senator Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, one of six lawmakers on the law's oversight committee, says he expects the legislature will make changes in the law during the 2013 General Assembly.
