MCNtalk has blogged about OxyContin and other powerful prescription painkillers in the past few months (“Oxycontin Express,” March 11; “Fight Over a Fix for Florida Pill Mills,” February 25) with a focus on the situation in Florida. Pill mills have flourished in Florida, especially in Broward County, in recent years. Weak standards governing who can set them up, a lack of oversight by state agencies and the absence of a prescription-monitoring program have contributed to the problem, said Sherry Green, chief executive of the nonprofit National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws.

To address the situation, as the New York Times notes, the Obama administration said last week that it would seek legislation requiring doctors to undergo training before being permitted to prescribe powerful painkillers like OxyContin, the most aggressive step taken by federal officials to control both the use and abuse of the drugs.

In the last decade, the abuse of pain medications like OxyContin has remained at epidemic levels, and medical experts have expressed concern that the legitimate use of the drugs may also pose patient risks. For years, the question of whether doctors should be trained as a condition of prescribing such medications has been fiercely debated. Read more…