AG’s Plan Aims to Curb Prescription Drug Abuse
Posted on June 6, 2008
Filed Under Criminal Law, Drugs, Felonies, Law |
This week California Attorney General Edmund Brown announced a plan to curb prescription drug abuse. Prescription drugs are the most abused drugs in America, particularly among teens, young adults, women and seniors. Brown’s plan would make patients’ prescription drug histories available to doctors and pharmacies on an internet data base. The data base would be constantly updated to provide medical personnel with real-time drug histories to prevent drug abusers from obtaining multiple prescriptions from different doctors.
“Every year, thousands of doctors try to check their patients’ prescription drug use history but the state’s database is difficult to access,” Brown said in a press release. “If California puts this information online, with real-time access, it will give doctors and pharmacies the technology they need to fight prescription drug abuse which is burdening our healthcare system.”
Every year, nonmedical use of prescription and other pharmaceutical drugs results in more than half a million emergency room visits. Multiple drugs are involved in 55% of these ER visits. Prescription drug abuse among teens is a growing national problem. Pharming parties in which teens raid family medicine cabinets for prescription pills, dump them into a bowl and pass them around like candy are growing in popularity among high school and college students. Not only is abusing prescription drugs a significant health risk, it is a serious crime in California.
In California, drug crimes include possession of drugs for personal use or sale; trafficking which is the transporting, buying or selling of drugs; distributing drugs or conspiracy to perform any of these acts. Most drug crimes are charged as felonies and can result in a county jail or state prison sentence, fines, loss of driver’s license and confiscation of property. You may be required to register as a narcotics offender. Mandatory minimum sentences may apply even for first-time offenders; and California’s Three Strikes Law can increase the length of your sentence. However, in California non-violent drug offenders may be eligible for less onerous sentencing alternatives. If you are charged with a drug offense, consult a skilled drug defense attorney may be able to help you avoid jail through an alternative sentencing program.
-LegalPro
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