In Case You Missed It: New Jersey Consumer Affairs Director Calls New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program a Vital Tool in the Fight Against Opiate Abuse
NEWARK – New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs Acting Director Steve Lee, in an op-ed published today in the Asbury Park Press, and earlier this week by the Courier News, Courier-Post, Daily Record, Home News Tribune, and Vineland Daily Journal, called upon New Jersey’s prescribers to help fight the nationwide epidemic of prescription drug abuse, by using New Jersey’s powerful prescription tracking database.
The op-ed, which can be read in full
here, states that 41 percent of New Jersey’s 62,992 eligible prescribers and pharmacists are registered for access to the New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program (NJPMP). This represents a significant increase since the past spring, when the Division of Consumer Affairs launched an aggressive campaign to educate prescribers about the NJPMP and encourage them to enroll.
Beginning last month through the end of October, more than 29,000 New Jersey physicians and osteopaths are applying to the Division for the annual renewal of their authority to prescribe medications classified as Controlled Dangerous Substances (CDS). For the first time, all doctors who submit their CDS renewal applications are being automatically pre-registered for an NJPMP account if they do not already have NJPMP access. This automatic enrollment makes the NJPMP immediately available to thousands of new users – but it is still up to those doctors to take the next step and actually incorporate this resource into their medical practice.
The op-ed includes an anecdote shared by Dr. Bruce Bonanno, a Monmouth County emergency physician, regarding his use of the NJPMP to help a patient with an apparent drug problem. It concludes, “Had this emergency room physician decided against using the NJPMP, he might have missed the opportunity toaddress the opiate addiction that was this patient’s true medical need.
For more information on the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs' initiative to halt the diversion and abuse of prescription drugs, view the Division's
NJPMP website, and the Division's
Project Medicine Drop website.
Follow the Division of Consumer Affairs on
Facebook , and check our online calendar of upcoming
Consumer Outreach events.
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