Camden County debates joining St. Louis prescription drug monitoring program
As the country continues to battle the opioid crisis, local governments across Missouri are considering how to prevent drug misuse and abuse. The lack of a statewide drug monitoring program, however, leaves local leaders with little state guidance on how to prevent opioid-related injuries and deaths.
Tonight Camden County debates joining Missouri’s only Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which is operated by the St. Louis County Department of Public Health. A town hall was hosted at the Camden County Courthouse at 6 p.m. to discuss the issue.
Missouri is the only state in the country without a statewide PDMP, but the St. Louis version has quickly spread since its inception in April 2017. When it started, 14 Missouri counties and cities joined the St. Louis PDMP. Today 58 have joined the program.
Greg Hasty, the Camden County presiding commissioner, said the town hall will serve as a forum to supporters and opponents of joining the PDMP.
Hasty said opponents of such a program want to voice concern to county leaders, so the town hall was set up to allow citizens the opportunity to address the commission.
At least one of the concerns some have with Camden County joining the PDMP is the possability of exposing private data. Dr. Faisal Khan, director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, said those concerns are unfounded.
“Privacy concerns are overblown, they have no basis in truth whatsoever,” Khan told ABC 17 News Thursday.
On the same note, U.S. Sen Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) says that state representatives and senators have fallen behind on attacking the opioid epidemic in the Show-Me State.
“It’s past time for leaders in Jefferson City to take real action to catch up to the progress happening at the local level,” McCaskill said in a statement.
In May 2017, following a series of stories on several aspects of the opioid crisis, ABC 17 News hosted a town hall in Columbia to discuss the opioid crisis in Missouri. You can watch that discussion by clicking here.
