ANTI-DRUG PRESCRIPTION

The province may give law-enforcement agencies access to suspicious medical information and may toughen its medical act to defuse what one police officer has called the "nuclear bomb" of the local drug trade.

Both measures were among the 50 recommendations of a task force report on the prescription painkiller OxyContin.

Current legislation allows the province to share medical information with police "when the protection of the public is an issue," Health Minister Elizabeth Marshall said.

That data would include evidence of "double doctoring," where patients go to several physicians to get prescriptions.

Marshall said she has asked cabinet for the authority to provide information to police about such things as prescribing patterns.  There will be "stringent criteria" governing the release of medical files, she said.

"There's a concern with respect to people's right to privacy, and we're trying to balance that against the public good," Marshall said.

Cabinet will also look at toughening existing laws to grant medical authorities greater leeway in probing third-party complaints.

Information-sharing and collaboration between police and medical authorities are key, Marshall noted.

Among the other task force recommendations which Marshall said government intends to act upon immediately:

- - implementing tamper-resistant prescription pads;

- - continuing education programs for health professionals and youth;

- - establishing provincial guidelines for methadone treatment;

And among the other recommendations made by the task force, which government will consider:

- - expanding addictions services and treatment options;

- - the possibility of developing a methadone program for the province's jail system;

- - implementing a formal needle exchange in the St.  John's area, in conjunction with the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador;

- - continuing to provide money towards a provincial pharmacy network scheduled to go on-line in 2006.

"All of the recommendations put forward will be given serious consideration," Marshall said.

But the health minister acknowledged that many of those proposals require government cash.  Those costs are unbudgeted, and will have to be discussed, and approved, by cabinet.

The province struck the OxyContin task force late last year in the wake of high-profile court cases and a string of media reports on the drug.

Task force chairwoman Beverley Clarke said OxyContin abuse is mainly a St.  John's and Avalon Peninsula problem at this time.  But there are fears it could spread to the rest of the province.

From 1997 to 2003, there were 17 accidental drug-related deaths in the province.  Seven of those were related to OxyContin or its pharmaceutical cousins.

Response to the work of the task force was positive.

Dr.  Andrew Major, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association ( NLMA ), said proposed changes to the medical act will make it easier to combat double-doctoring.

Also aiding in that effort will be the province-wide pharmacy network scheduled to go online in 2006.

While government is contributing some cash to that initiative, the NLMA has also turned to the private sector and other sources for help.  "We're basically filling a gap that government probably isn't able to fill at this particular time," Major said.

Tamper-resistant prescription pads are also an excellent interim measure until the network gets up and running, he noted.

And Major defended doctors' role in prescribing the drug, saying the "vast majority" of them appropriately dispense OxyContin.

The province put that figure at 96 per cent, which means that four percent, or one in 25 doctors, doesn't.

He said the NLMA has started an education program for physicians and other medical professionals about OxyContin.

Police, meanwhile, lauded the recommendations, calling them "timely and appropriate."

"We're hoping that some of the issues are, of course, expedited so that we can move on with the job," said Insp.  Sean Ryan of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary ( RNC ).

Ryan linked the OxyContin problem - and the drug trade in general - to a broader spike in the crime rate.

As The Telegram reported last month, break-and-enters were up nearly 30 percent in the first 6 1/2 months of 2004, and armed robberies more than doubled.

"The drug problem is a contributing ( factor ) to many other problems, such as our property crime, our armed robberies, our muggings, that sort of thing," Ryan said.

"So, with some of the recommendations of the task force, that's certainly going to assist in a whole bunch of areas."

Ryan said many of the RNC's investigatory avenues are blocked by current rules on the release of medical files.

"There are government agencies that have information they believe supports criminal activity, but yet by virtue of the existing legislation, they cannot share that with us," he told reporters.  "( That ), in essence - no pun intended - handcuffs us from doing a thorough job.

"It's like trying to investigate a crime with limited amount of evidence, but we know that there is a whole barrel of evidence next door that we don't have the key to be able to access.  It's analogous to that.  These legislative changes are going to provide us with that key."

In June, RNC Const.  Jason Sheppard - a criminal intelligence officer tasked to monitor OxyContin abuse following the deaths of two addicts last year - told a health conference: "OxyContin is a nuclear bomb compared to other drugs - I haven't seen anything like this before."

Sheppard said the problem touched all strata of society.

"I know people here in this city who are doing 10 or 12 ( OxyContins ) a day, one oxy-80 an hour," Sheppard told the conference.

"I know people who have track marks from their elbows right to their wrists.  Two years ago, you wouldn't find a track mark in the city, hardly."