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Tennessee tackles drug abuse with new approach

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By: MARIE KEMPH, mkemph@murfreesboropost.com

Posted: Sunday, January 22, 2012 7:18 am

Tennessee tackles drug abuse with new approach | Bill Haslam, Bill Gibbons, Bill Whitesell, District Attorneys, Politics, Synthetic Drugs, Crime, Prescription Drugs, Mike Sparks, Rutherford County, Cannon County, Tennessee

Gov. Bill Haslam unveils the Tennessee Public Safety Action Plan during a Jan. 5 press conference at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. The plan outlines new initiatives designed to combat the underlying issues associated with crime.

Various state agencies are ramping up efforts to prevent synthetic and prescription drug abuse as part of the new Tennessee Public Safety Action Plan released by Gov. Bill Haslam earlier this month.

“Keeping our citizens safe is one of state government’s primary responsibilities,” Haslam said. “This action plan is a detailed road map that addresses some of our toughest safety challenges head on.”

Last year, Haslam created the Public Safety Subcabinet Working Group, composed of more than 10 government agencies, to hold informational sessions with more than 300 people from across the state to discuss law enforcement concerns and outline an action plan to address those issues.

The goals of the public safety plan, which outlines 11 objectives and 40 initiatives, are to significantly reduce drug abuse and trafficking, curb violent crime and lower the rate of repeat offenders.

“I am proud of this group – whose members bring a number of different perspectives to the table – for working together to recommend meaningful solutions,” Haslam said. “They are coordinating their efforts and moving in the same direction to implement this plan.”

The plan is designed to tackle the underlying issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, which are often associated with other crimes, in an effort to improve overall public safety.

“While we have seen an improvement, Tennessee continues to have a violent crime rate far above the national average and the highest among southeastern states,” said Bill Gibbons, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. “This plan addresses many of the underlying factors that lead to crime in our state and takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the problem.”

Officials from the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference, which was one of the agencies a part of the Subcabinet Working Group, announced in December synthetic and prescription drug abuse has become a serious concern.

According to the Subcabinet Working Group’s findings, in 1999, fewer than 7 percent of residents who received state-funded treatment through the Tennessee Department of Mental Health abused prescription pain relievers. By 2009, it had jumped to 23 percent.

“Every year, each of Tennessee’s district attorneys face different challenges in his or her district,” said Bill Whitesell, district attorney general for the 16th Judicial District, which comprises Rutherford and Cannon counties.

“However, as a group, the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference continuously works to identify serious areas of concern that must be addressed at the state level,” he said. “In 2012, synthetic and prescription drug abuse tops our list.”

Synthetic drugs have devastating mental and physical side effects, and these products are spreading rapidly and “have the potential to eclipse methamphetamine as the most dangerous drug” in the state, Whitesell said.

In response, district attorneys from across the state said they plan to lobby for stiffer penalties for those who sell and produce synthetic drugs.

“Because synthetics constantly change to capitalize on existing legal gray areas, (we) will also work to make certain these substances remain illegal and out of reach of our youth,” Whitesell said.

Legislation to stiffen such penalties and reduce the availability of synthetic drugs is already underway.

Republican state Rep. Mike Sparks is sponsoring legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly that would revoke the beer or tobacco licenses of storeowners who sell synthetic drugs.

“The least we can do is remove the premise that it is safe because it is readily available at certain convenience stores,” Sparks said, during a Jan. 6 meeting of the TN-0 task force.

Sparks and former detective Kathy Hines created the task force to educate communities about the dangers of synthetic drugs and provide a stronger lobbying network of concerned state and local officials who also want to outlaw the products.

But while working to stiffen synthetic drug penalties, district attorneys are pivoting from similar efforts that have been geared toward prescription drug abusers.

Instead, Whitesell said officials feel prescription drug abuse should be addressed in a “new, meaningful manner through common sense steps that do not necessarily result in prison time.”

“We will propose more access to the state’s prescription drug monitoring database by law enforcement,” he said, “more active monitoring of that database, and a requirement that physicians and pharmacists check the database when prescribing or filling any pain medications.”

While district attorneys want to increase monitoring efforts, they also want to provide more avenues for addicts to receive treatment.

According to the public safety plan, officials believe that if targeted to the right offenders, effective drug treatment courts can break the cycle of addiction and violent crime, and save the state and local communities incarceration costs.

“Our hope is that these steps will reduce theft and distribution of legitimately prescribed medications, the operation of pill mills, the practice of ‘doctor shopping’ and prescription fraud,” Whitesell said.

Tennessee Public Safety Action Plan

• Require prompt reporting of controlled substance prescriptions to the prescription monitoring program database

• Increase use of prescription monitoring program database by dispensers

• Expand law enforcement access to prescription monitoring program database

• Develop regional approach with surrounding states, including the sharing of timely database information

• Create tougher restrictions on over-prescribing pain clinics

• Strengthen penalties for doctor shopping

• Establish regional residential drug treatment court facilities

Tagged under Bill Gibbons, Bill Haslam, Bill Whitesell, Cannon County, Crime, District Attorneys, Mike Sparks, Politics, Prescription Drugs, Rutherford County, Synthetic Drugs, Tennessee

Member Opinions:

By: lindacheekmd on 1/22/12
What's new about attacking the doctors trying to treat legitimate pain? How about this? Attack the poor living conditions of the people living in Tennessee. Attack the bad lifestyles with acidic diets. Attack the stress people have. Then you will start to see addiction decrease. The disease model of addiction, that pills inherently cause addiction, is wrong. Forty years of using that model to attack doctors, while addiction has tripled should show you are on the wrong track. But doing this ensures your legal people keep their jobs, doesn't it?

By: postlooker22 on 1/22/12
Drugs will always be an issue. Drugs make you feel on top of the world, and as long as people feel like the world is on there shoulders sober, people will do drugs. Sad to say, just make sure you, personally, do not fall into its trap.

But im sure all the good people on here knew this already. Just stating my opinion on it.

By: JRB2429 on 1/31/12
Lindacheekmd...
You are correct.