The Missouri legislature passed a bill last year to check for suspected misuse of addictive painkillers. KMOX checked in with Dean Linneman, executive director of Missouri's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, to hear more about what the program will do.
"It requires dispensers to submit information to the database to the program on every prescription drug that is prescribed that is a controlled substance, either schedule two, schedule three or schedule four drug," Linneman said.
That information is then stored and made available to doctors, nurses, dentists, or anyone who might want to prescribe a controlled substance to a patient.
"And that will allow them to see basically the opioid prescription history for patients, so that they don't over-prescribe, or they may be able to come up with an alternative medication," he said.
The drugs involved are the ones that have a high potential for abuse, like morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl.
The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program is in its fourth phase, and Linneman said he hopes that the database will be up and running in early 2023.
Hear more about the database and reducing prescription drug abuse from Dean Linneman on Total Information AM:
Copyright 2022 KMOX (Audacy). All Rights Reserved.
Follow KMOX | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Listen on the free Audacy app.
Ask your smart speaker to play K M O X.