Kasich proposes to license pharmacy technicians, limit painkillers
http://www.wlwt.com/news/kasich-proposes-to-license-pharmacy-technicians-limit-painkillers/38986646
Pharmacy technicians were responsible for a third of about 140 pharmacy drug thefts over the past three years, said Steven Schierholt, the Ohio Pharmacy Board’s executive director. Ohio is one of only eight states that doesn’t license the technicians, he said.
The state estimates about 42,000 pharmacy technicians currently work in Ohio and are subject only to employer background checks.
“With the current system, if a pharmacy technician engages in theft from a pharmacy, and if an employer chooses to fire them or allow them to resign, nothing keeps them from going down the street and getting another job,” Schierholt said.
Kasich, a Republican running for president, announced several proposals Tuesday to address Ohio’s addictions epidemic as record numbers of people continue to die from painkiller and heroin overdoses. The proposals are part of a mid-session budget review process.
Among other measures, the state would:
- Require facilities where prescribers treat 30 or more patients with Suboxone, a medication used as part of substance abuse treatment, to be licensed by the pharmacy board unless the facility is a licensed hospital.
- Expand the use of the anti-overdose drug naloxone, sold as Narcan, to schools, homeless shelters, halfway houses and treatment centers. The drug is already available without a prescription to people with friends and family members who are addicts. First responders such as paramedics have used it to save hundreds of lives in Ohio.
- Require sole proprietors, such as doctors, veterinarians, dentists and other health care professionals in private practices, to be licensed by the pharmacy board if they distribute controlled substances to their patients.
- Waive the requirement that medical providers be certified in Ohio for two years prior to operating a methadone clinic to increase the availability of the treatment option.
- Place a 90-day cap on the length of a painkiller prescription and require anyone who doesn’t have that prescription filled after 30 days to get a new one.
These limits are meant to reduce the number of pills in people’s medicine cabinets, often a leading source of initial addiction, said Dr. Mark Hurst, medical director of the state Mental Health and Addiction Services agency.
“Many people don’t realize that the initial source of opiate medications is not from a drug dealer on a street, it’s from family or friends,” Hurst said.
Accidental drug overdoses have killed more Ohioans than car crashes since 2007. A record 2,482 people in Ohio died from accidental overdoses in 2014, an 18 percent increase over the previous year.
Ohio previously set guidelines to reduce the prescribing of painkillers in emergency rooms and for closer monitoring of prescriptions for people suffering chronic pain, such as cancer patients.
State medical officials also say people with short-term pain from injuries or surgery should be given alternatives to prescription painkillers whenever possible.
Filed under: General Problems
This is none of the governors business
how drs treat their patients. This publicity hungry imbecile that being Governor Bozo
Kasich needs to be throw out of office or his power needs to be reduced because he is a moron. All his legislation has led to more deaths I. Ohio
So Ohio cracks down on people taking opiates makes it harder for the disabled
to get tgeir medication. The governor does not care his crackdown has cost lives and has effected the life of people suffering chronic pain or the disabled.
Thankfully Kasich will be out of office
In 2020 or sooner I hope. He needs to be impeached so does Secretary of State Dewine.
“‘With the current system, if a pharmacy technician engages in theft from a pharmacy, and if an employer chooses to fire them or allow them to resign, nothing keeps them from going down the street and getting another job,’ Schierholt said.”
Nothing … except that big fat felony conviction on their record.
“A record 2,482 people in Ohio died from accidental overdoses in 2014, an 18 percent increase over the previous year.”
Well, it looks like their fancy little prescription opioid mandated guidelines, including an 80 MME limit, they implemented back in October 2013 didn’t help now, did it? How do these morons figure out how to breathe, let alone get elected?!
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/09/24/overdose-deaths.html
Tracey…I understand that the Starfish, eats, craps and breathes through the same common aperture in their anatomy. They also have a brain that isn’t too much more complex than having three neurons linked together in series.
Coincidentally, this description seems to describe those elected officials that you referenced in your comment, “How do these morons figure out how to breathe, let alone get elected?!” I hope that my reply to you was sufficient to answer the question that you posed. {:0)>