FAYETTEVILLE -- The state should look into either new criminal laws, a civil lawsuit or both to curb abuse of prescription drugs such as painkillers, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday.
"Prescription drug abuse has become one of the biggest drug problems in the state, and I've talked to the state's surgeon general about what we can do about it," said Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Benton. "I'm looking into a lawsuit and changes in the law."
Both Scott Pace, spokesman for the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is the senator's uncle and a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, agreed abuse of legal prescription drugs has become a serious problem and said they are taking steps to address it.
"The figures we have is that 70 percent of teens have experimented with a prescription drug that is not for them by the time they're out of high school, at least once," Pace said. "These are the drugs for parents, aunts and uncles and are presumed to be safe -- and they are for the right person in the right conditions, but abusing them can have deadly consequences."
The senator convened his committee in the Quorum Court meeting room at the Washington County Courthouse Thursday afternoon, where members met with judges Cristi Beaumont and Thomas Smith. Beaumont presides over Washington County Drug Court and Smith is the judge in Benton County Juvenile Court.
Hutchinson made his remarks in the course of a detailed discussion on court reform with the two judges. "Northwest Arkansas's been a shining light in criminal justice reform," he said, praising the operation of courts in the area.
Both judges told the committee analysis of case histories and collection of data about court cases were vital to any success they have had. Northwest Arkansas hasn't found some secret recipe to lowering recidivism rates among drug offenders or lowering incarceration rates among juvenile offenders, trends committee members praised.
The courts' successes in those area's come from analysis and trend-spotting specific to the area, they said. For instance, Northwest Arkansas has juvenile facilities that are alternatives to detention by the state, facilities many other regions don't have, Smith said.
Northwest Arkansas isn't immune to going down wrong paths, Beaumont said. "People think of drug courts as an alternative to prison for first offenders," she said. "What we found out when we looked at our data was that a lot of our effort was wasted on first offenders. The people who really needed our resources were high-risk, high-need cases such as addicts who will offend again if they don't get that help." First-time offenders are less likely to be repeat offenders, she said.
"I used to think that I'd never give a drug to someone to get them off a drug," Beaumont said. "That's before I read the research." Recently developed drugs that can soothe the cravings of an addiction without serious side effects are "medically assisted treatments" that should be considered, she said. It was at that point in the discussion Hutchinson said he was wary of prescription drugs because they are being heavily abused.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he was working with the medical community, pharmacists, educators and parents on addressing prescription drug abuse. He agreed with the senator the abuse of painkillers in particular was a serious problem because of those drugs are so addictive.
Pace said Act 901 by Sen. Hutchinson, passed in 2015, allowed tracking of the number of times the same person fills such a prescription and is already providing useful tracking of the problem.
NW News on 09/18/2015