Optimizing PDMPs to Support Law Enforcement Activities

Prescription drug abuse, and associated trafficking and diversion of prescription controlled substances, has reached epidemic status and shows no sign of abating. To address this public health and law enforcement crisis, individual states have taken the lead in creating prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). Although programmatic details differ among states, in general, all PDMPs are designed to assist in detecting and preventing abuse and diversion of prescription controlled substances. One programmatic focus is reducing the incidence of edoctor shoppingf which occurs when patients see multiple providers and pharmacies with the intent of obtaining prescription controlled substances for misuse and/or diversion. Although PDMP data are generally available to law enforcement for investigative and prosecution activities, little is known about their usefulness in supporting these functions. To address the crisis of prescription drug abuse, trafficking and diversion, there is an urgent need to optimize the utility of PDMP reports for investigative and prosecutorial purposes. The goal of this application is to evaluate the features and practices of PDMPs and identify those that have the greatest utility for law enforcement investigations and prosecutions. We plan to accomplish the goal of this project by 1) comparing and contrasting current enabling legislation, structural features, and operational procedures for select PDMPs, 2) analyzing access to and utilization of PDMP reports for investigative and prosecutorial activities, 3) analyzing perceived impact of PDMP reports on investigations and prosecutions, and 4) identifying key features of PDMP reports that optimize investigative and prosecutorial activities to identify best practices for PDMP implementation regarding law enforcement activities. Upon successful completion of the proposed study we will have positively identified the features and practices of PDMPs that are most effective for efficient investigation and prosecution of individuals misusing, trafficking and diverting prescription drugs. These results are expected to have an important positive impact because they will provide evidence based information on the best practices of PDMPs to support law enforcement activities which will, in turn, provide a contextual framework for future policy and program improvements for mitigating prescription drug abuse, trafficking and diversion.