More pharmacies to join drug monitoring program

Dozens of pharmacies in Nova Scotia are expected to join an online prescription drug monitoring system this month, a move one First Nation hopes will end a major problem with pill abuse in its community.

Abouthalf of pharmacies currently receive electronic notifications about suspicious prescriptions.

But when 75 more come online this month, it will mean 83 per cent of all pharmacies in the province will be up to date, almost two years since the move away from paper began.

System manager Anne Foran said this should make it easier to spot prescription drug abusers and people who sell narcotics to them.

"We are already, even with 55 per cent online, seeing some significant differences in what we are able to accomplish," Foran said.

However, she added,the monitoring system still needs work. "I think right now we are in the early stages of seeing what this system will do."

At the moment, the system of tracking prescriptions doesn't seem to be working in Indian Brook, near Halifax.

Leaders in the First Nation community say they're seeing a growing problem with prescription drug abuse, including more suicides, more overdoses and more robberies as addicts hunt narcotics.

Many people claim the OxyContin pills flooding their community come from two or three doctors away from the reserve in Dartmouth, Wolfville and Sheet Harbour. Those doctors have declined interviews with CBC News.

Charges dropped

Marsha Hillier's brother Stuart had a month's supply of drugs from his doctor when he died this year at the age of 43. She's convinced he died of an OxyContin overdose, though the coroner has yet to confirm that.

"I think the doctors are a big problem," said Hillier, "but it's a problem everywhere."

RCMP Sgt. Darren MalcolmtoldCBC News thatprescriptions written by doctors are a big source of the drugs coming to Indian Brook. The Crown recently dropped charges against a known drug trafficker because the man had a legal prescription, he noted.

The computerized prescription drug monitoring system has changed since it was introduced and only 2,500 warning letters went out in 2006, down from 7,000 in previous years.

Foran wouldn't disclose exactly which circumstances would trigger a warning,but she gave one example of acase wherea patient with prescriptions from three or four doctors and a history of fast refills would be flagged.

Foran said the system is now set up to balance concerns about prescription drugabuse with the need to deliver medication tolegitimate patients who may have more than one doctor and more than one pharmacy.

In addition, letters now go to the pharmacy and not the doctor.

Foran saida new board of directors overseeing the drug monitoring programis looking at ways to educate doctors about the system.