Proposed Prescription Drug Legislation

Proposed Prescription Drug Legislation

Glenn group seeks drug
legislation

By LARRY MITCHELL-Staff Writer

Posted: 12/30/2010 12:00:00 AM PST

WILLOWS — A group called Not in Our Town — Glenn County seeks a lawmaker to carry legislation
aimed at reducing addiction to prescription drugs.

Jim Bettencourt, of Willows, who heads the group, said this week he is lining up meetings with state
and federal lawmakers to discuss the proposal.

His group proposes a bill that would require doctors to give patients a written test and a urine
test before prescribing any "scheduled" drug.

The distribution of such medicines is controlled because of their potential for abuse.

Doctors who specialize in pain-management routinely administer urine and written tests before
prescribing scheduled drugs, Bettencourt said, but the practice is rare among most doctors.

The written test is designed to reveal if a patient has a propensity to become addicted.

The urine test will tell if a patient has drugs in his or her system.

Not in Our Town — Glenn County sponsored a forum on the abuse of prescription drugs in
September at Chico State University.

Bettencourt said he plans to meet with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's health-legislation aide next week
to discuss the proposed measure.

He said he intends to meet with Congressman Wally Herger, R-Chico. And he hopes to talk to
Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, and state Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, about the proposal, as
well.

"I don't care which branch or which agency promotes it as their own," he said.

"I want to see it move forward in one capacity or another."

One concern about the measure is cost, Bettencourt said, adding the written test has very little cost, and
the urine test isn't too expensive.

In the long run, the proposal would save money, he said.

"Think of the hundreds of thousands of individuals who would be prevented from becoming addicted or
having an overdose."

According to an article published in November in "Pediatrics," the official journal of the American
Academy of Pediatrics, "The non-medical use of prescription medications has increased by 162 percent in the past decade and has surpassed all illicit drugs except marijuana in the United States."

Bettencourt said young people aren't only getting controlled drugs from their parents' medicine chests or from their friends — many get their own prescriptions from doctors.

Proposed Prescription Drug Legislation

Proposed Prescription Drug Legislation

A Glenn County group is pushing for legislation regarding the most commonly abused prescription drugs. The man behind the campaign has long been instrumental in drug prevention here in the North State. Jim Bettencourt, the chairperson of the group Not In Our Town says two simple tests given before a doctor writes a prescription could lead to a drastic drop in the illegal use of some of the most dangerous drugs. "Nobody wants to keep anybody from getting their meds. That's not what this is about. What it’s about is trying to keep those meds from being abused," Bettencourt said. Bettencourt is taking a proposal to lawmakers that would require doctors to give patients a urine and written test before prescribing any scheduled narcotics. He says the move is something that is needed as prescription drug abuse continues to rise. "The level of overdoses and deaths due to prescription drugs has escalated over the last decade," Bettencourt said. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics the non-medical use of prescription drugs ranks 2nd behind marijuana as the most common category of drug abuse. Part of the reason for that rise according to Bettencourt is the lack of testing by doctors. While he knows many will say the testing is too expensive; he says the $40 for a urine test could easily be offset by the money saved with fewer addicts. "The cost of a screening test is very minimal and in comparison with the negative side. You know it is a small expense," Bettencourt said. While Bettencourt admits that patients could lie on the 20-question test. He says the combination of the tests would give doctors a pretty broad glimpse into a person's history. "The responses to the questions in conjunction with the urine analysis would give them overall the best opportunity to understand what's in that patients system and what's going on in their head," Bettencourt said. Bettencourt already has a meeting set senator Diane Feinstein’s aide, and intends to schedule meetings with other North State legislators in the coming months.