Drug Czar: Talk to Your Kids about Prescription Drugs
Gil Kerlikowske, the nation’s drug czar, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Michael Jackson’s death is a “wake-up call to the country” about prescription drug use, and he urged that parents talk to their kids.
"This prescription drug problem doesn't know boundaries of race, or ethnicity, or economic class," he said in an interview on “The Situation Room.” The drug czar said that the death rate from prescription drug overdoses in the US is greater than that for gunshot wounds, and that the latest number was “in the 30,000 range” in 2006.
Blitzer pointed out in the interview that the deaths of celebrities like Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, and Heath Ledger remind us that some doctors are not doing what they’re supposed to.
In response, Kerlikowske said, “There are doctors who abuse the law and abuse their patients," though he was quick to point out that the majority of doctors are working within the law and are genuinely concerned about their patients. "There are a number of parts," he said. "There are patients who doctor shop. There are drugs that are taken out of extended care facilities or medicine cabinets. There's a whole list of things."
Blitzer then asked, “How do you punish these doctors who just give prescriptions for really serious drugs they shouldn’t be giving?”
"Well, the Drug Enforcement Administration does a very good job on that," said Kerlikowske, who is the former police chief of Seattle. "The thing that really looks bright is the prescription drug monitoring programs—38 states now have laws; 33 have operations—that gives the public health services, and sometimes law enforcement, the ability to find out about doctors that are perhaps over-prescribing, and it also gives the opportunity to find out about patients who are going to multiple doctors."
Blitzer pointed out that if you have money, it’s easy to find a doctor who is willing to write a prescription for almost anything. “There are doctors who abuse the system to make a buck,” he said.
"Yes, but there are a lot of other ways these drugs, these powerful painkillers, these prescriptions, that are getting out into the hands of young people," Kerlikowske responded.
When asked how we stop the problem, Kerlikowske said, “We’re advocates of the prescription drug monitoring programs where the states are passing these laws and we're going to work very closely to make sure they have the tools to put these into effect. The other is our media campaign, the Anti-Drug Youth Media Campaign. We ran a number of ads both in February of '08 and also in April of '09 to educate parents, look, be concerned about what's in your medicine cabinets."
When asked if there was a lesson to be learned from Jackson’s death, Kerlikowske said, “If we can bring to the attention of the people the dangers of prescription drug abuse, I think there is some benefit to this country.”
