SMART takes aim at prescription abuse

OREM — Jordan Petrie was getting his life together.

He was engaged, had a good job and had been prescription drug free for months.

"We were so busy looking toward the future that we did not see the freight train coming," said Terry Petrie, Jordan's father.

At 27 years old, Jordan became the 100th drug overdose of 2006 in Utah County on Oct. 10, 2006.

"I worked hard to save Jordan's life," Petrie said. "I thought he was going to win."

The Petries joined 30 other volunteers, ranging from police officers to elected leaders to other affected individuals and families, at the Drug Abuse Prevention Summit at Utah Valley University on Wednesday night. Participants discussed their experiences with prescription drug abuse, and the Substance Misuse and Abuse Reduction Team coalition's plan to reduce abuse in Utah.

Currently, Utah is ranked No. 1 in prescription drug abuse. In 2009, more than 300 people died of drug overdoses in Utah.

The state spends $842 million annually from drug and alcohol abuse-related issues, from productivity loss and theft to rehabilitation programs. This translates into $1,587 for every Utah resident.

"We need to fight this house to house, block to block, state to state," Petrie said.

And they're trying. SMART supports an increased alcohol tax as well as more responsible prescription writing. A BYU study found that 34 percent of Utah County residents have extra pills left after taking their medication. The coalition has found support in local and state leaders as well.

For the past three years, Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem, has introduced a bill in the Legislature to fight drug abuse. This year HB28, HB35 and HB36 focus on reporting prescription drug abuse to prescribing doctors.

If the bill passes, police officers and hospitals will notify prescribers through an online database run by the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensure. Currently, 2,000 doctors are registered to use the database. However, only half of those registered use the program to check for prescription drug fraud in patients.

Originally, the division planned to absorb all costs in its current budget, but what it thought would be an extra 300 notifications for overdoses per year turned into 4,000 overdoses per year. And each alert will usually be sent to more than one doctor.

The bill asks for $43,000 over three years from the state's Commerce Service Fund and the General Fund, but expects to generate $34,400 in revenue over those three years.

"From a policy standpoint, nobody has any qualms about the bill," Daw said. "It's just the money that might be a challenge."

Still, SMART volunteers press on and plan to educate the community about proper prescription drug disposal and prescription drug abuse consequences.

"We're losing more battles than we're winning," Utah County Commissioner Gary Anderson said. "The state cannot handle all this by itself."

e-mail: eteichert@desnews.com