California AG’s Rx for drug abuse: The Internet

Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2008

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has unveiled a plan to provide doctors and pharmacists with almost instant Internet access to patient prescription drug histories to help prevent so-called doctor shopping and other abuses of pharmaceuticals. Brown said that the state's prescription monitoring needs significant improvements because it now can take healthcare professionals weeks to obtain information on drug use by patients. That delay can allow some patients to get large quantities of drugs from multiple doctors for personal use or sale, he said.