Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse, misuse, and diversion are deadly problems and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and our member companies support a number of efforts that educate communities about the dangers of prescription drug diversion and promote the secure disposal of unused and expired prescription medication.

PhRMA and our member companies will continue to collaborate with law enforcement, health care providers, and others to help to reduce diversion and ensure the integrity of the supply chain, and we support policy changes to strengthen law enforcement penalties for prescription drug diversion so that medicines don’t reach the wrong people. For more resources on prescription drug abuse, please see PhRMA’s Prescription Drug Abuse Resource Center.

What is prescription drug abuse?

Prescription medicines, when used as prescribed, play a critical role in improving and extending patient health. However, when misused or abused they can be dangerous and even deadly.

• According to the most recent national data, after marijuana, prescription medicines are the most abused substance. Nearly seven million Americans over age 12 reported using prescription drugs in the past month for non-medical reasons in 2010.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) notes that the three types of prescription drugs most commonly abused are opioids, central nervous system (CNS) depressants, and stimulants.  While many of the medicines included in these categories are produced by brand name or innovator biopharmaceutical manufacturers, it is important to recognize that among these drugs, an estimated 91% of prescriptions at the retail level were for generic medicines with only 9% of the prescriptions at the retail level for brand name medicines in calendar year 2011, according to PhRMA analysis of IMS Vector One National Audit (VONA), February 27, 2012.
• These statistics reinforce that addressing the problem of non-medical use of prescription drugs is a shared responsibility and there is no single solution. All stakeholders – the federal government, PhRMA, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, American Medical Association, and other relevant associations and stakeholder groups, including healthcare providers, law enforcement, faith-based and other community organizations, schools and colleges, parents, pharmacists, and state and local governments – must continue to work together to prevent prescription drug abuse and misuse.

How PhRMA is engaging on this issue

PhRMA supports and partners with several programs that work to reduce prescription drug abuse and prevent diversion of prescription medicines by promoting secure storage of prescription medicines and appropriate disposal of unused or expired prescription medicines. We also support policy changes to strengthen law enforcement penalties for prescription drug diversion.

The Importance of Safe Medicine Disposal

• PhRMA partners with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the American Pharmacists Association on the SMARxT Disposal Program. This program informs people how to promptly and safely dispose of medicines in the trash. PhRMA recommends that all unused medicines, unless specified otherwise by the Food and Drug Administration, should be mixed with water, sealed in an opaque container safely secure from children, pets, and others, and discarded in household trash to be later incinerated or placed in a government approved solid waste landfill.
• PhRMA supports the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) National Take Back Day. The DEA’s National Take Back Day allows patients to drop off expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs – which will be collected and destroyed by local law enforcement officials – at designated sites nationwide. The program is secure, free and anonymous, and those interested in learning more can go to www.dea.gov or www.nationaltakebackday.com to find available community resources and participating locations.
• PhRMA supports the American Medicine Chest Challenge (AMCC), a community-based public health initiative with law enforcement partnership designed to raise awareness about the dangers of prescription drug abuse. The AMCC provides a nationwide day of disposal of unused, unwanted and expired medicine held in communities across the country.

PhRMA Efforts to Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse

• PhRMA, along with a number of companies, have collaborated with The Partnership at Drugfree.org (formerly known as the Partnership for a Drug-Free America [PDFA]), to help parents prevent, intervene in and find treatment for drug and alcohol use by their children. Collaborative efforts include supporting assessments by healthcare providers to develop appropriate educational materials for health care providers and their patients and efforts to track attitudes toward prescription drugs among teens and other target groups.
• The Partnership has also developed, in concert with our member companies, a program called Rx 360, which is a community-based prevention program aimed at helping parents help their kids avoid prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse. In Arizona (with funding from the Department of Health and Human Services) and Washington State (with funding from Purdue Pharma) this program trains local prevention and treatment experts and other health care professionals to deliver community-level presentations to educate parents and other concerned adults on the issue of prescription drug abuse by teens and what parents and others can do to help prevent this behavior.
• PhRMA has partnered with the National Governor’s Association to promote The Prescription Drug Abuse Reduction Policy Academy, a year-long exercise in strategic planning aimed at reducing prescription drug abuse.
• PhRMA supports the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) Interconnect Program, which is the first national effort to coordinate and facilitate interoperability among states’ Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP’s).
• PhRMA has worked collaboratively with D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and law enforcement officials to develop a school curriculum to prevent abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

PhRMA Principles on Prescription Drug Abuse

PhRMA has identified, consistent with many of the recommendations from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the following guiding concepts to inform a comprehensive national strategy aimed at reducing and preventing prescription drug abuse:

• Educating the public regarding the dangers of misusing and abusing prescription medicines while also educating and equipping youth influencers (including parents, grandparents, teachers, and health care providers) and all health care stakeholders with the necessary knowledge and skills to deter abuse of prescription medicines, identify those in need of treatment, and provide appropriate treatment options to those in need.
• Ensuring that potential policies to prevent prescription drug abuse recognize and ensure that patients with a legitimate need continue to receive the medicines they need.
• Promoting a comprehensive approach and sustained commitment from all relevant health care stakeholders ranging from federal, state, and local governments to innovator and generic drug companies, to the broad range of health care providers that interact with patients, to educators, family members, and others across the community.

Six specific areas identified by PhRMA to help reduce and prevent prescription drug abuse include:

1. Expand educational and awareness efforts for the public, health care stakeholders, and others.
2. Enhance efforts to promote prevention, screening, brief intervention and referral for treatment of prescription drug abuse throughout the health care system.
3. Assess the effectiveness of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) and explore enhancements.
4. Address challenges related to research and development of new medicines to treat addiction and medicines with reduced potential for abuse.
5. Promote the enforcement of existing laws that can help deter abuse of prescription drugs as a key law enforcement priority.
6. Expand educational efforts related to the proper disposal of unused and expired prescription medicines and secure storage of prescription medicines.