The war on drugs sometimes seems like a game of trial and error combined with an ongoing round of rules changes. This month, as Montana joins 43 other states with our new prescription tracking program, we may already be behind the learning curve.
The new law is meant to track certain classes of addictive or powerful drugs to prevent patients from “doctor shopping.” This is a known way for addicts or dealers to obtain multiple prescriptions for the medications they are interested in. For the addict, doctor shopping is a way to increase their supply without getting caught by any one doctor. For dealers, multiple prescriptions are a way to get enough pills to make sales. The law does make it harder – but only for the naïve.
Grandma isn’t sophisticated enough to avoid the tracking – she’ll likely get spotted if she tries to double dip. But dealers and addicts have a bit more training behind them. They know that multiple IDs are a good idea, as well as getting supplied through the mail and an online pharmacy. In other schemes, prescription drugs are obtained in states that have more liberal laws and simply smuggled into Montana.
There’s another, hidden route that gets prescription drugs on the street. Someone on a fixed income, or receiving welfare, can mimic the symptoms needed to get a narcotic and then sell the pills to supplement their income. Some seniors have been busted doing just this. After all, who would question a 70-year old when she complains of pain?
We shall have to see in the arrest statistics if the new law is having the intended effect. One almost certain consequence is to raise the price of black market Rx drugs. Will that increase crime because they cost more? Will it shift the preferred narcotic of choice toward heroin or other illegally manufactured substance? Will it actually help reduce the number of problem cases and the amount of drugs available?
Stay tuned. The war on drugs continues…
