ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives today passed Senate Bill 36 with a vote of 117 to 45, showing tremendous bipartisan support for the measure. Carried in the House by State Representative Tom Weldon (R-Ringgold), this legislation strives to help doctors and pharmacists identify prescription drug abusers.
“This bill is a step toward enabling physicians and pharmacists to share information that will allow them to better care for their patients while simultaneously tracking drug abusers and traffickers,” said Rep. Weldon.
SB 36 creates an electronic database of the prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, III, IV, and V controlled substances in Georgia. The database will only be accessible by doctors and pharmacists who would have to use a secure password. As a result, doctors and pharmacists will be better able to identify prescription drug abusers.
Currently, physicians do not have the ability to know if their patients are obtaining similar prescriptions from other doctors. This lack of information enables patients to pursue multiple prescriptions for similar medications from different doctors. Abuse of these medications results in patients overdosing and putting themselves in life-threatening situations. Additionally, some patients abusing the system in this way obtain the medications so that they can illegally sell the drugs on the street. SB 36 ends this abuse by giving doctors and pharmacists the tools needed to stop this abuse.
For more information on SB 36, please click here.
Representative Tom Weldon represents the citizens of District 3, which includes portions of Whitfield and Catoosa Counties. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2008, and currently is the Vice Chairman of the Code Revision Committee and the Secretary for the Retirement Committee. He also serves on the Appropriations, Banks & Banking, Rules, and Judiciary committees.
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