Grants and Contracts Details
Description
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 shoppingf 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.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/1/13 → 7/31/15 |
Funding
- National Institute of Justice: $363,226.00
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