Montana Prescription Monitoring Plan

Beginning in FY 2002, Congress appropriated funding to the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). Prescription monitoring programs 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 monitoring programs have the capability to collect and analyze prescription data much more efficiently than states without such programs, where the collection of prescription information requires the manual review of pharmacy files, a time-consuming and invasive process.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program assists states as they plan, implement, or enhance a PDMP to: build a state-level data collection and analysis system to enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies and public health officials for future prevention efforts; enhance existing programs' abilities to analyze and use collected data to identify drug abuse trends, identify and address sources of diversion, and increase the number of users of the PDMP; facilitate and participate in national evaluation efforts to assess efficiency and effectiveness; encourage and implement the exchange of information among states to prevent cross-border diversion; assess the efficiency and effectiveness of state-level programs to make improvements and encourage additional states to implement programs; and, enhance collaborations with law enforcement, prosecutors, treatment professionals, the medical community, and pharmacies to establish a comprehensive PDMP strategy.

The Montana Board of Crime Control (MBCC) will use the grant to support prescription drug monitoring planning efforts. MBCC proposes to conduct a study on the cost of prescription drug abuse in Montana in order to continue public and stakeholder outreach, education, and training though both the Montana Prescription Monitoring Plan (MPMP) Workgroup and the Montana Attorney General Prescription Drug Task Force. Grant funds will help maintain existing collaborations designed to secure passage of prescription drug monitoring legislation in 2011. The goals of this project are to reduce the number of deaths related to prescription drug abuse and misuse; reduce the number of prescribers who engage in inappropriate prescribing practices; and reduce prescription drug abuse by teens and younger aged children.

CA/NCF