Chain pharmacy shares Senate subcommittee's concerns over Rx abuse

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores announced that it submitted on Tuesday a statement to the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism for the "Responding to the Prescription Drug Epidemic: Strategies for Reducing Abuse, Misuse, Diversion and Fraud" hearing.

"NACDS and the chain pharmacy industry share the committee's concerns with the problems of prescription drug abuse, misuse, diversion and fraud. 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," NACDS wrote in its statement.

The statement outlined ways that pharmacy can help curb these problems, including pharmacy's support for controlled substance prescription monitoring programs, utilization of medication therapy management services, efforts to prevent illegitimate Internet drug sellers from selling drugs to consumers and providing patients with means for disposal of their unwanted medications.

Pharmacy has a long-standing commitment in helping to prevent and curb prescription drug diversion and abuse, NACDS noted. The association recently sent a letter to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in support of the administration's strategy to prevent and reduce prescription drug diversion and misuse following the release of the office's report, "Epidemic: Responding to America's Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis." In addition, last month NACDS submitted a statement to a House of Representatives panel highlighting pharmacy's commitment in partnering with law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders to help prevent and combat prescription drug diversion and misuse.