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Updated 3:16 p.m.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland signed an executive order Friday morning creating the Ohio Prescription Drug Task Force–a group that will include doctors and pharmacists from which he hopes to begin getting answers in six weeks on how to manage the state’s growing problem.

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Prescription drug abuse and related deaths–largely as a result of pain medication abuse–are on the rise in Ohio, especially in Southern Ohio, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. The Avon Lake Democrat has held 140 round tables around the state where the problem, particularly Medicaid prescription drug abuse, has been brought up, according to a statement by Brown’s office.

Among several statistics quoted by the senator’s office:

• On average, more than three people die each day in Ohio because of drug-related poisoning.
• According to statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, there has been an 141 percent increase in the number of admissions for substance abuse treatment for prescription pain medications in Ohio from 1,140 in 1998 to 2,746 in 2006.
• In Ohio, there were 327 fatal unintentional drug overdoses in 1999, which grew to 1,351 deaths in 2007. In 2007, unintentional drug poisoning became the leading cause of injury death in Ohio.

Strickland said he supports legitimate pain clinics and other legal means that provide addictive medications to patients. He called on the state’s doctors and pharmacists to check the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System–a prescription tracking database–every time they prescribe or dispense pain medications.

Rather, Strickland wants to target illegitimate pain clinics, professionals who fraudulently prescribe pain medication, and people who fraudulently buy and resell. He announced a $250,000 set aside of Justice Assistance Grants for law enforcement to expand or improve their efforts.

“Pain medication, when abused, ceases to treat pain and instead causes it,” Strickland said in his office’s release. “Too many lives have been lost and too many people have become lost chasing these pills. Prescription drug abuse is a menace that must be fought with every available tool. So today, we are creating a new tool to help us take on this public health emergency.”

Strickland’s order earned praise from medical industry groups, which call the business of illegally prescribing, buying and selling prescriptive drugs “drug diversion.”

The Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) will serve on the newly created task force. “Prescription drug abuse is a serious problem, particularly in Southern Ohio,” said Dr. Wayne B. Wheeler, OSMA Ninth District Councilor. “This problem needs a comprehensive solution and the OSMA looks forward to working with the governor’s task force to help find that solution.”

OSMA will pose several questions to the task force, including: What roles should pharmacies, physicians and hospitals play to help stop inappropriate prescriptions from getting filled? And how can technologies like electronic prescribing help combat the problem of forged prescriptions?

“The Ohio Hospital Association will be working with our members to recommend a good hospital representative to the governor for this task force,” said association spokeswoman Mary Yost in an emailed response to a reporter’s questions.

“We will give the governor 100 percent support on tackling this thing. It is a huge problem,” said Earnest Boyd, a pharmacist who is executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association. “We’re seeing many bad prescriptions being offered to pharmacists across the state.”

Many of these “bad prescriptions” are written in one part of the state and presented for fulfillment in another part, often hundreds of miles away. We’re advising pharmacists to be extremely cautious in filling out-of-area prescriptions,” said Boyd, whose association also has been asked to sit on the task force.

“I don’t know why we are seeing an explosion of this, but it seems people are setting up pain clinics, and out of those clinics, we’re ending up with questionable prescriptions,” Boyd said.

Strickland mentioned during his press conference that he is aware of nine pain clinics in Scioto County alone.

“The governor believes there are legitimate pain-management clinics and programs that are providing an important medical service for patients,” said Amanda Wurst, the governor’s spokeswoman, in an emailed answer to a reporter’s question. “He is concerned about those physicians or pharmacists who are not meeting any acceptable standard of care and are apparently dispensing prescriptions not as a means to help a patient, but as a means to enrich themselves.”

The governor believes there are legitimate pain management clinics and programs that are providing an important medical service for patients.  He is concerned about those physicians or pharmacists who are not meeting any acceptable standard of care and are apparently dispensing prescriptions not as a means to help a patient but as a means to enrich themselves.