Cmdr John Burke

The efficiency and value of the nation’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPS) have been questioned from time to time by various groups.

Center for effective regulatory policy and safe access protects patients experiencing pain.

HealthCareDiversion.org provides a platform to gather incidents into a national database and improve reporting

Rite Aid’s solution will allow pharmacists to make responsible dispensing decisions by navigating PDMPs.

These health care professionals should receive education on how to prevent opioid misuse.

But as we applaud the reduction in opioid overdose deaths, let's also acknowledge that the medication isn't the solution to all drug abuse.

All 3 are essential in the fight against the opioid crisis, but they need to forge alliances and work together.

Although the opioid crisis continues, pharmacists can tap PMP programs to help in the nation's fight.

But law enforcement has made a difference over the years, even in the days before software-tracked medications.

PDMPs are an incredible tool for dispensers, law enforcement, prescribers, and regulatory agencies.

The law requires pharmacists to ensure that prescriptions for controlled substances are legitimate and for a true medical purpose.

Pharmacists should continue to be on the lookout for diversion and abuse to help stem the tide.

Focusing on the criminal operations of criminal dispensers and prescribers can end in conviction.

Providers and pharmacists have a legal right to prescribe and dispense controlled substances, so investigators must tread carefully.

Outcry Over Dsuvia’s Availability Is Overblown, Given the Safeguards in Place for This Pain Medication.

Let’s get back to dealing with each person claiming to be in legitimate pain and believe them until we have solid evidence that they are scamming the system.

With medical marijuana scheduled to be sold in ohio as early as December, the situation will get interesting, to say the least, as qualifying prescribers will not be writing prescriptions but providing “recommendations.”

With school back in session, concerns about prescription medications are top of mind.

When instructing anyone about what to do during a pharmacy robbery, the most crucial point is that those involved should aim to get themselves, their coworkers, and their customers through the situation unhurt.

Do some people get hooked on prescription drugs and then gravitate toward fentanyl and heroin?

The emergency department used to be the place for drug shoppers to get their medications, though the number of dosage units was seldom high.

It seems as if every couple of years, someone advocates anew that the prescription monitoring programs run by 49 states be consolidated and put under a national program.

Virtually all the media coverage of the national drug problem revolves around prescription opioids or the clandestine version of carfentanil and fentanyl.

More serious situations can and do occur when elderly physicians dole out prescriptions that they perhaps should not.

In late October 2017, President Donald J. Trump declared the opioid abuse problem in America a national emergency.

In the 1990s, it was discovered that Americans were being undertreated for pain, something that I think was valid then and is still valid today.

I find it interesting that many people pin the blame for the opioid crisis on pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.

Law enforcement must continue to concentrate on large-scale dealers that reap the monetary rewards of drug trafficking, ensuring that they receive hefty jail sentences and returning the forfeiture laws to a common-sense level so that these folks are punished by losing all their ill-gotten gains.