Site Launched for NY Rx Drug Abuse Stories

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced today that he's launched a new website, Share Your I-Stop Story, to feature personal stories from New Yorkers directly impacted by prescription drug abuse. The site's aim of putting a human face on the issue is also designed to persuade state lawmakers to pass Schneiderman's Internet System for Tracking Overprescribing (I-STOP) plan, which would connect doctors and pharmacists to a real time, online database tracking the prescribing and dispensing of frequently abused narcotics. “Numbers and statistics are important, but at the end of the day, the prescription drug crisis is about people,” says Schneiderman. “The first hand experiences of doctors, pharmacists, patients and family members prove that the status quo is not tenable. You can’t read these stories and not feel some urgency to improve our system and prevent more tragedies from happening in the future.” Prescription drug monitoring programs like I-STOP currently operate in 43 states. According to Schnidermann's recently released report on prescription drug abuse, the number of prescriptions for narcotic painkillers in New York has increased from 16.6 million in 2007 to nearly 22.5 million in 2010. Admissions for prescription drug abuse treatment and fatal prescription drug ODs in the state are also rising.