The stakeholder that I chose to represent prescription drug abuse is doctors. Doctors are the medium between patients and prescription medications and have the jurisdiction to request a certain medication and dose. Dr. David Kloth addresses several key points about the talk in congress making doctors undergo specific training in order to learn how to properly prescribe drugs, notice signs of an abuser, and also register with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Kloth conveys that the U.S is the consumer of eighty percent of the world's opioids and ninety-nine percent of the world's hydrocodone. Even yet, our society has the most leisure time, and in this free time, we turn to these medications, using them for reasons in which they are intended. Kloth argues that training in prescribing drugs should be mandatory for all doctors before they can prescribe drugs. The training is said to be "mandatory" because doctors work on busy schedules and have little time outside of work and their families. The program will educate doctors how medications interact, how to transfer from one medication to another, how to safely prescribe, and learn how to use the states prescription monitoring program, which ensures that patients are not receiving medications for similar problems from multiple doctors. Kloth suggests that these classes be eight to sixteen and retaken every six years. Not only will these classes prevent medications from being prescribed in excessive doses, it will also save money for the states Medicaid as they will not be paying for medications that are not needed. In Connecticut, a state with a program for educating doctors, saved $600,000 on medications in the year 2010. Kloth pushes this to not restrict doctor's business, but to stop this epidemic.
Jason Kane. Doctors Tell Congress How to Rein in Prescription Drug Abuse. PBS. 30 June 2011. Web. 4 Feb 2014. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/doctors-tell-congress-how-to-rein-in-prescription-drug-abuse/
