CONTROL (Comprehensive Oklahoma Narcotics Tracking and Records On-Line)

In Fiscal Year 2006, Congress appropriated $7,500,000 to the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Prescription monitoring programs are systems where controlled substance dispensing data is submitted to a centralized database administered by an authorized state agency. These programs are designed to help prevent and detect the diversion and abuse of pharmaceutical controlled substances, particularly at the retail level where no other automated information collection system exists.

States that have implemented prescription drug monitoring programs have the capability of collecting and analyzing prescription data much more efficiently than states without such programs, where the collection of prescription information requires the manual review of pharmacy files which is a very time consuming and invasive process. The increased efficiency of prescription monitoring programs allows for the early detection of abuse trends and possible sources of diversion. The analysis of collected data also allows for the identification of outmoded prescribing practices, such as the undertreatment of pain, which may result in the development of educational programs for medical professionals.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control (OBN) will use this funding to establish the hardware and software requirements to bring Prescription Monitoring in house and online for all scheduled drugs in the state. The OBN Control program knows that diversion problems are not strictly law enforcement problems so the Control program will instead have dimensions reaching throughout the social world. They will have a multidisciplinary approach that consists of the following areas: evaluative functions, early-intervention functions, regulatory functions and criminal investigative functions. All of these areas will interlock into a more effective anti-diversion program.

CA/NCF