ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has submitted a statement to a Senate subcommittee to explain how pharmacy chains can help clamp down on prescription drug abuse and diversion.
NACDS said it provided the statement to the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism for a hearing on Tuesday titled, "Responding to the Prescription Drug Epidemic: Strategies for Reducing Abuse, Misuse, Diversion and Fraud."
The statement outlined ways that the chain drug retailers can help address those issues, such as through support for controlled-substance prescription monitoring programs, use of medication therapy management services, efforts to prevent illicit online drug sellers from selling medicine to consumers, and giving patients with a means for safe disposal of their unwanted or expired medications.
"NACDS and the chain pharmacy industry share the committee’s concerns with the problems of prescription drug abuse, misuse, diversion and fraud," the association said in the statement. "We believe that there are a variety of ways to help curb these unfortunate activities, and chain pharmacies actively support many initiatives to reduce the incidence of these activities."
For instance, NACDS noted that about 35 states have prescription drug monitoring programs — and another seven or eight states are implementing them — in which pharmacies submit information on the controlled-substance drugs that they dispense on a regular basis, depending on a state program’s requirements.
"These monitoring programs aid in identifying suspicious parties and suspicious activities.
These programs encourage appropriate intervention to determine if a person may have a
drug addiction and facilitate treatment. The programs also provide public health information on trends in drug abuse, misuse, diversion and fraud," the association stated. "NACDS and chain pharmacies support these programs as one of the tools to help curb prescription drug abuse, misuse, diversion, and fraud. We believe that these programs have proven useful in preventing these unfortunate activities at the prescriber, pharmacy and patient levels."
Earlier this month, NACDS sent a letter to the Office of National Drug Control Policy to show its support of the White House’s strategy to prevent and reduce prescription drug diversion and misuse. And in April the association submitted comments to Congress to spotlight pharmacy’s commitment to team with law enforcement and other parties to help combat prescription drug misuse and diversion and misuse.
