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Push for drug registry renewed

With deadly overdoses rising, advocates say a database would cut down on those who prescribe or pick up too many narcotics.

By LISA GREENE
Published April 2, 2006

TAMPA - Maj. Jeff Taylor goes to schools wearing his police uniform to tell students of a life cut short by a prescription drug overdose.

He shows them the photos of the tall kid who loved scuba and motorcycles and dreamed of being an Army Ranger.

Not until the end does Taylor, veteran police officer, tell them that the 18-year-old who overdosed on OxyContin on June 19, 2003 was Matt Taylor. His youngest son.

Taylor, a Lee County sheriff's major, and other advocates hope state legislators this year will take action to cut down on deadly overdoses. What they want is a statewide drug registry that would record patients who get, and doctors who prescribe, too many prescription narcotics. The proposal is designed to cut down on people who go from doctor to doctor, or pharmacy to pharmacy, getting large supplies of drugs they can sell on the street.

But whether a registry is the best way to cut down on those drugs has ignited debate.

Nobody disagrees that prescription drug abuse is skyrocketing. Abuse of the drugs has ballooned so much over the past few years that they now kill more people than illegal drugs do. In the first six months of 2005, prescription drugs, such as OxyContin and methadone, were found in two-thirds of the state's 3,500 overdose deaths.

"It's a life and death issue," said James McDonough, Florida's drug czar. "We're losing six people a day from prescription drug abuse."

McDonough thinks a registry could cut that number in half.

But for four years, a bill to create the registry has been defeated by state legislators concerned about patients' privacy.

"It's Big Brother at its worst," said Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart. "The government has no business monitoring the medical care that law-abiding Floridians receive."

The proposal would require pharmacists to record the prescriptions for certain painkillers and other drugs in a central registry. Before doctors and pharmacists write or fill a prescription for a patient, they could check the registry to make sure the patient isn't getting the drug elsewhere. Law enforcement investigators also could use the registry to check on specific patients or doctors who are under investigation.

Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Fort Pierce, and Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, sponsors of the bill, say they have built in safeguards for patients' privacy. Nobody would be able to access the entire database, searching for high-volume users. Doctors and pharmacists would be able to get information only on specific patients. Police investigators would have to get subpoenas for specific doctors and patients whom they had reason to investigate.

The database would be contracted out to a private company, Harrell said, to ease people's fears of government officials having health information.

"Blue Cross/Blue Shield knows everything about me," she said. "They know every diagnosis I've ever had, every prescription I've ever gotten. That's been maintained in their database, and nobody seems to be afraid of that."

But those safeguards aren't enough for Negron, who's running against Saunders for state attorney general, and other opponents.

"I think we're entering a slippery slope," said Rep. Rene Garcia, R-Miami. "Maybe this Legislature has good intent, but what's to say that in the future that database can't be opened up for other people to view? That's what scares me."

Both men say even a database run by a private contractor would still be government-sponsored. They suggest other options, such as an electronic health card the patient keeps.

But Dr. Rafael Miguel, a Tampa anesthesiologist, says saving lives is more important. Miguel, a former member of the state medical board, has pushed for a registry for years.

"This is a critical issue. It can no longer be ignored," he said. "Floridians are dying. ... People can go to 10 different doctors and 10 different pharmacies, and no one will be the wiser."

Saunders thinks the registry would stem the flow of drugs to the street and save lives.

"They've become the drugs of choice because they're so readily available," he said.

Nor do people realize how easily abusing the drugs can kill, McDonough said. Used correctly, these drugs ease pain for millions of people who legitimately need them. But when people use them recreationally, they often take large doses, or combine them with alcohol or other drugs.

Many users aren't stereotypical drug addicts. Users often shy away from cocaine, heroin or other illegal drugs, McDonough said. They think pills are safer.

"There is this aura of pristineness," he said. "After all, it's a manufactured pill. You're not sneaking up the alley to get your shot. ... You don't have to stick this in your vein or snort it with a spoon."

But these drugs are a deadly threat. Taylor learned that lesson the hard way.

It was a few days after Father's Day 2003, and he was in his office, sympathizing with a friend over teenager troubles, when an officer came in and said his son was being taken to the hospital with a possible overdose.

Well, at least this will be a good lesson for him, Taylor thought as he drove. Maybe he'll have to get his stomach pumped.

When he arrived, police officers were everywhere, milling around. Then the ambulance drove up. The paramedic shook his head. Taylor opened the ambulance doors.

"He looked like he could have been asleep," Taylor said.

But he reached out to touch him, and his son's body was already cold.

When his children were growing up, Taylor warned them again and again.

"Never in a million years would I dream, with me as a dad, and how much I hammered away their whole lives, that they would use drugs," he said.

He still doesn't believe that Matt was an experienced user. His high school graduation had been a few weeks earlier, and Jeff Taylor found his son's graduation gifts in his room - checks, still uncashed. An addict would have run through the money, Taylor thinks.

But for all Taylor's cautions, he never warned him about prescription pills.

He will always wish he had.

[Last modified April 2, 2006, 21:05:03]