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One hundred fewer Utahns have died of prescription drug overdose deaths since health officials started educating doctors and patients about the dangers of misusing pain pills.
The Utah Department of Health presented data to lawmakers Wednesday showing 236 Utahns died of unintentional overdoses from prescription pain pills in 2010. The crisis appears to have peaked in 2007, when 326 died — a 500 percent increase from 2000, when 60 died.
"We can solve this problem," said Teresa Garrett, director of the health department's Division of Disease Control and Prevention.
Utah is in the fifth year of an estimated 10-year effort to prevent and reduce deaths. It started in 2007 when lawmakers approved $300,000 for education and research. Other sources contributed $250,000.
In addition to radio and TV spots urging the public to take their drugs as prescribed and to keep them locked up, almost 600 physicians were trained on best prescribing practices — including starting with smaller doses and avoiding long-acting drugs for acute pain. About half of the physicians said they changed their practices based on the training.
While state money for the campaign has run out, the Utah Pharmaceutical Drug Crime Project, which includes police, federal agents and health workers, has nearly $1 million to continue the campaign through next year.
And bills recently passed in the state Legislature attack the problem in various ways: Clinicians who have the ability to prescribe controlled substances must take a four-hour class on safe and effective prescription practices; April is Clean Out the Medicine Cabinet Month; prescribers will be notified if their patients have been admitted to a hospital for a drug overdose or poisoning or have been convicted of driving under the influence of a prescribed drug; pharmacists will develop a prescription label format that is more patient- and safety-centered.
The state division that oversees the Controlled Substance Database is still working on making it work in "real time" so doctors can immediately see if their patients are doctor-shopping. Now, the database is updated about eight days after a prescription is filled.
Advocates expect to ask the 2012 Legislature to authorize more prescription disposal drop-offs; mandatory education of patients who receive pain pills on proper storage and the dangers of misusing the drugs; and counseling of patients by pharmacists.
Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, chairman of the interim Health and Human Services Committee, said abusers need more treatment options.
About 8 percent of the 17,000 adults and youth who were treated in the public substance abuse system were admitted for prescription drug abuse, according to the state's Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.
The system is underfunded, with another 83,000 Utahns needing treatment for all types of drug abuse.
The need may only grow: Health department data show almost 10 percent of 12th graders had abused prescription narcotic drugs.
Utah's drug habits
21 percent of Utah adults had been prescribed an opioid during the past year.
72 percent of them had leftover medication.
3.2 percent of Utahns used an opioid more frequently than directed.
1.8 percent, or 50,000 people, used pain pills not prescribed to them.
Source: Utah Department of Health Source: Utah Department of Health