Impact of PDMPs on Drugs Being Prescribed

"The presence of a PDMP [prescription drug monitoring program] may also have an impact on the use of drugs more likely to be diverted. For example, DEA rank-ordered all states for 2000 by the number of OxyContin prescriptions per 100,000 people. Eight of the 10 states with the highest number of prescriptions-West Virginia, Alaska, Delaware, New Hampshire, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Connecticut-had no PDMPs, and only 2 did-Kentucky and Rhode Island. Six of the 10 states with the lowest number of prescriptions-Michigan, New Mexico,14 Texas, New York, Illinois, and California-had PDMPs, and 4-Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota-did not."

Source

General Accounting Office, "Prescription Drugs: State Monitoring Programs Provide Useful Tool to Reduce Diversion" (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, May 2002), GAO-PO-634, p. 16.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/…