Kentucky government recently passed a new law that is aimed at cutting prescription drug abuse and has already led to the closing of 10 different pain management clinics. The state was concerned that people were receiving strong painkillers for relatively common illnesses and then growing addicted to the narcotic painkiller drugs. After that, the men and women who held the prescriptions would habitually come back for refills, slowly becoming a legal drug addict. Kentucky did not want to allow their citizens to fall into this situation, so they determined to take action. In addition to closing 10 pain management clinics already, doctors have been ordered to limit their prescription of painkillers. Already more Kentucky citizens are receiving other treatments to help them when they are injured.

The governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, released figures at a hearing that showed that the amounts of hydrocodone prescribed in Kentucky in the last few months has dripped 7.5 percent. While in August of 2011 there were 20.9 million doses, there were only 19.3 million doses of painkillers issued in August of 2012. Oxycodone prescriptions have dropped 6.5 percent while Xanax prescriptions fell 9 percent. Beshear says that he is grateful for the progress but expects to see more drastic changes in the future. He claims that too many families and communities have been shattered by prescription drug abuse. While the people choose to take the drugs, the governor believes that the root of the problem lies with the physicians that prescribe the narcotic drugs. These doctors would often prescribe a strong drug to any person who wanted one, effectively encouraging them to become addicted to the damaging medications. While painkillers are appropriate for a person in agony, they should not become a method of escaping reality and should not be taken simply for the dizzying and blurring affects.

Kentucky’s anti-prescription drug abuse law was passed in April of 2012 and went into effect on July 20^th. The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure says that the abuse of prescription drugs is an epidemic in the state and that the government desperately needed a strong, enforceable, and practical law that they could trust to ban drug abuse in the state. This law has been passed to achieve that goal. Now, in the state of Kentucky, pain management clinics must be owned by license medical providers and have medical directors as overseers of the clinic. This will help men and women to avoid clinics that simply dole out prescriptions for a patient’s every compliant. Not all pain management clinics are “pill mills” but many in Kentucky were practicing this activity. Pill mills are called by this name because they provide large amounts of drugs to patients with little medical oversight to justify the prescriptions. Almost a dozen clinics shut down voluntarily before the government could review their medical records.

The new Kentucky laws also require all doctors, optometrists, registered nurses, podiatrists, and dentists that write prescriptions to use the state’s new prescription monitoring system. This system is known as KASPER and will report what civilians are taking strong medications and how many times they attempt to get the prescriptions filled after an operation or diagnosis. Providers are learning that a KASPER report not only saves time, but can monitor problem users. Since the advent of KASPER, Kentucky police have arrested various prescription drug abusers who have been using or dealing the strong medications. The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure has recently disciplined 18 doctors for dishing out narcotic prescriptions when bribed to do so by a patient. In the past six months, the board has taken disciplinary actions against 33 doctors for this medical malpractice. If you have been over diagnosed or treated by an uncaring doctor who was working at a “pill mill” you may be able to sue for medical malpractice. Contact an attorney today to discuss your situation and see if you have a case!