Nation

Crackdown takes aim at prescription drug abuse

WASHINGTON - Faced with a steep increase in illicit use of prescription drugs, the Bush administration Monday declared a crackdown on Internet drug sales and "doctor shopping." Nonmedical use of prescription drugs ranks second only to marijuana in illicit drug use among adults and youth, according to the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. "Many Americans benefit from the appropriate use of prescription pain killers, but when abused they can be as addictive and dangerous as illegal drugs," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said in a statement. "This new, coordinated federal initiative will help us stop and prevent prescription drug abuse and the harm it can cause." In 2002, the survey found, 6.2 million Americans were abus-ers of prescription drugs. Almost 14 percent of youths between the ages of 12 and 17 have abused prescription drugs at least once in their lifetime, and emergency room visits resulting from abuse of narcotic pain relievers have increased 163 percent since 1995. President Bush's fiscal 2005 budget requests $138 million, an increase of $20 million, for programs designed to reduce the black-market sale of prescription drugs. The plan calls for an increase in state monitoring programs that track a patient's drug use and detect any "suspicious" prescriptions or indications of "doctor shopping" - when a patient goes to numerous physicians to get multiple prescriptions. Twenty states now have prescription monitoring programs, and John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said he hopes to implement it in 11 more states by next year.