Parkes Detectives will meet with doctors throughout the shire to plan strategies to curb the increasing problem of prescription drug abuse in Parkes and Forbes.
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Detective Steve Howard (Lachlan Local Area Command) said yesterday the command was in the process of contacting all local doctors and inviting them to attend a specially convened meeting within the next few weeks.
Since November last year, there have been two fatal prescription drug overdoses and a number of non-fatal incidents.
Three members of the one family were arrested in Parkes earlier this month and one in Forbes over the alleged illegal supply of prescription medication.
Detectives have already met with doctors at Forbes Medical Centre on the issue.
Of particular concern is the pain medication, fentanyl, an opiate medicine similar to, but more potent than, morphine.
It is typically used to treat patients suffering severe pain, or to manage pain after surgery.
It is also used occasionally to treat chronic pain.
Fentanyl is significantly stronger than both morphine and heroin, which Detective Howard said is why police are having so many problems with it.
“It’s like a heroin hit but it’s 80 times more potent than they’d buy as a powder form on the street,” Detective Howard said.
Fentanyl is often prescribed as 75-100 mg patches which come in a box of 10.
According to Detective Howard, a patient on the pension can get a box for about $6.
“Unfortunately, a number of people have been rorting the system,” he said.
“Certain people are making a huge amount of money out of it.
“Each patch is sold for $350, so they can make $3500 from one box worth $6.”
Detective Howard said people are “doctor shopping” and travelling from town to town getting prescriptions to sell.
“They don’t use it themselves when they should be,” he said.
A big problem police have is that if they search someone and find prescription drugs they can’t do much about it, since legally the person is allowed to have them if the medication is prescribed to them.
Detective Howard said they wanted to meet with local doctors to make them aware of what’s happening.
“My hope is that everyone, police and doctors, can work together to try to eliminate the illicit use of prescription drugs.
“We’re trying to make it a bit harder for these unscrupulous people to get their hands on the drugs in question and sell for a profit.”
Forbes doctors respond
“In Forbes, we sat down with doctors and told them what’s occurring and how many people are making money out of prescription drugs,” Det Howard said.
Dr Neale Somes, one of the principals at Forbes Medical Centre, said prescription drug abuse is a real concern.
“It is a concern - if one of our patients don’t take their blood pressure tablets, it would be a concern to us, so it’s also a concern if patients aren’t taking their pain medication,” he said.
“We’d hate to think our prescribing of this medication is causing increased problems in the community, rather than reducing it.”
Dr Somes said that there are ready alternatives to fentanyl available, so from now on they’ll be looking more favourably at some of those options.
“Today’s talk has made us think about our prescriptive behaviour for managing pain,” he said.
Fellow principal doctor at Forbes Medical Centre, Dr Gregory Whittaker said that the facility has been taking an active approach to the problem for the past few years and will continue to do so.
“We have an approach to controlling the problem and managing it,” he said.
Forbes Medical Centre policy is that patients see their usual doctor for chronic pain, as well as all medical concerns.
The doctors want the community to know that police are liaising with them about the use and abuse of prescription drugs in the Forbes community.
“We want the community to be aware that we’re aware,” Dr Somes said.
Detective Howard said they will continue working with the Forbes doctors to flag certain people suspected of participating in illegal behaviour.