National Institute on Drug Abuse

I will advocate for the change in pain management to prevent prescription drug misuse at the Georgia state level; to add, pill mill laws should be used in conjunction with prescription management systems (Lainie & Vernick, 2017). According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse line graph (NIH) (2018), there was a percentage of 8.8 (NIH, 2018) deaths, which were caused by opiate overdosage in 2016 (NIH, 2018). Moreover, prescription management systems are used to monitor the distribution of pain medications and to determine if physicians are distributing proper dosages of medications to their patients (Garcia, 2013).

In addition, pill mill laws control, who has the authority to prescribe medications such as physicians (Lainie & Vernick, 2017); plus, pill mill laws have requirements such as requiring pain management clinics have licenses and inspections (Lainie & Vernick, 2017). Therefore, I feel that pill mill laws and prescription management systems should be used together because; they will both help to decrease the amount of drug abuse in Georgia.

Three Key Elements The following three key elements influence policymakers: Contacting informative people, finding trusted sources, and staying on a topic (Oklahoma Rehabilitation Council, 2016). First, policymakers want information that is constantly focused on the main subject, so the problem will be identified and multiple solutions can be used to solve it. Second, policymakers need trusted sources to identify problems and solutions; therefore, I feel that contacting cohorts, who know more information about laws can help to determine how to make pill mill laws more effective. Third, policymakers prefer information from sources such as websites ending with .gov and .edu (Oklahoma Rehabilitation Council, 2016).

District Information P.O. Box 2565 Columbus, GA 31902 Dear Senator McKoon, Although prescription management programs have been used more often than pill mill laws, I feel that both prescription management programs, and pill mill laws should be used together. To add, I feel that if both the program and the laws are combined, prescription misuse/abuse will decrease; in addition, people who really need opiates will be to use the medication. Plus, pill mill laws are an effective way of determining, which pain management clinics have been distributing pain medication properly through licenses and investigations.

Whereas, prescription management programs monitor data such as identifying what prescriptions patients are presently using; therefore, patients will not experience medicine counter interactions. In comparison, I feel that prescription management programs are used to monitor patient prescription, data, and pill mill laws are used to enforce investigations and renewal of licenses. Therefore, Georgia must utilize prescription management programs and pill mill laws to decrease prescription misuse and increase proper distribution of medications. If you need more resources or assistance, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time and contributing to the health of all Georgia citizens.

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