Drug charges against N.S. doctor has non-profit raising big questions

The non-profit group Get Prescription Drugs off the Street (GPDOTS) is raising some questions with the government after a doctor in the province was charged with drug trafficking in February

Chief among them is why the “extremely large quantity of medication” that Dr. Sarah Jones was allegedly prescribing didn’t raise any red flags within the Nova Scotia Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.

Jones, a doctor practicing in Tantallon, has been accused of trafficking 50,000 pills of Oxyneo and Oxycodone to a single patient over a 20 month period.

In a letter to health minister Leo Glavine, the group questions why action wasn’t taken against Jones sooner.

“In order to prevent future diversion and encourage responsible prescribing there needs to be an understanding of how such a large amount of controlled drugs could be prescribed for 20 months without intervention,” GPDOTS writes in their letter.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In order to prevent future diversion and encourage responsible prescribing there needs to be an understanding of how such a large amount of controlled drugs could be prescribed for 20 months without intervention," GPDOTS writes in their letter.

GPDOTS asks the government to consider a full review of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and puts pressure on implementing the remaining recommendations made by the Auditor General in 2012.

In a 2012 review of the program, the Auditor General found several issues and deficiencies in the program’s ability to manage abuse or misuse of prescription drugs.

Though may of the recommendations have been implemented, the society points out that things like lack of consistency and the enforcement process  for prescribers are still areas of concern.