Rogers Applauds President's Drug Control Strategy

Rogers Applauds President's Drug Control Strategy

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Congressman Harold "Hal" Rogers (KY-05) today applauded President Bush's newly released national drug control strategy, which advocates the use of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), like Kentucky's KASPER program. The new anti-drug strategy hails KASPER as being "one of the Nation's flagship PDMPs."

"Prescription drug abuse is a national epidemic," Rogers said. "As we've seen here at home, these drugs are killers. State monitoring programs, like Kentucky's KASPER system, are helping fight prescription drug abuse and bring hope to communities around the nation. I applaud President Bush for recognizing the importance of these programs and supporting them through his budget request."

In 2001, Rogers used his position as a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee to create a national grant program that helps states track and combat prescription drug abuse. To date, Congress has appropriated $34 million for the "Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program." The President's Fiscal Year 2007 budget proposal includes $9.9 million for this program. The competitive grant program allows states that are either looking to create a PDMP, or upgrade their current system, to apply for federal money to supplement state funding. As of October 2005, a total of 25 states have or are in the process of implementing PDMPs.

"One of the hallmarks of this program is the flexibility it provides states in setting up their own prescription drug monitoring program," said Rogers. "Of the programs up and running, each one is unique and arranged according to the diversion needs of that particular state. Each state addresses concerns over access and privacy in a manner acceptable to their respective citizens. Some states, like Kentucky, house their program in a health services agency while others, like Texas, house it in a law enforcement agency. Because of this localized approach, each state finds their program to be an unqualified success."

Kentucky has used $940,000 in grants from the program to enhance and expand KASPER. In March 2005, Kentucky became the first state in the nation to provide a self-service, Internet-based system for tracking all schedule II-V prescription drugs. The program, called eKASPER, allows pharmacists, physicians, law enforcement and other authorized users to obtain KASPER reports 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Prior to the implementation of KASPER in 1999, state drug control authorities took an average of 156 days to complete investigations into abuse of the prescription drug system. The average investigation time has now dropped to 16 days. With the addition of eKASPER, reporting times have dropped significantly to allow for what is essentially real-time reporting.

Rogers became heavily involved in this issue after hearing from numerous Kentuckians about the devastating impact of illegally used prescription drugs, particularly OxyContin. In 2003, he created Operation UNITE to bring together law enforcement, citizens, educators, and health care professionals to fight the drug epidemic in southern and eastern Kentucky.

http://halrogers.house.gov/Read.aspx?ID=47