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NJ Law Officials Drug Use Spurs Drug-Monitoring Program
By Stacy Barnes | May 10, 2011
In late 2010, a report done by the Star Ledger revealed that at least 248 police officers and firefighters from 53 agencies were involved in anabolic steroid use, all of them receiving the illegally prescribed drugs from the same New Jersey doctor. Even when the doctor passed away, the officers continued to get their drugs from other area clinics. The Jersey City Police Department was found to have the highest amount of steroid drug abuse, filling prescriptions for drugs such as testosterone and Stanozolol and even using taxpayer dollars to do so.
While New Jersey had already received the appropriate funding for a drug-monitoring program 6 years ago, a program that would have regulated the doctors and prevented them from issuing fake diagnoses and illegal prescriptions to the officers, it had unfortunately been placed on the backburner. It was this instance and the alarming amount of officers involved that finally created the awareness necessary for the New Jersey government to move forward and implement their statewide drug-monitoring program.
The drug-monitoring program in NJ, which is already running in 34 other states, is intended to prevent the abuse of prescription painkillers and anabolic steroids. Prescription drugs are currently at the top of the list for the highest abused drugs in New Jersey, with Ritalin, Oxycontin and Adderall being the biggest threats to patients who enter drug rehab for prescription drug addiction. The operational monitoring program will use a statewide database to monitor all pharmacies and prescriptions issued. The goal is to track use as well as abuse trends and easily identify individuals who may be using forged prescriptions or obtaining excessive amounts of their prescription pain medication from one or more doctors.
Though New Jersey government officials are primarily focused on monitoring law officials, the program will also be greatly effective when trying to prevent the use of anabolic steroids, painkillers, and prescription drug amongst the general public and the climbing prescription drug abuse amongst teens.
Topics: Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Drug Rehab | Comments Off
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