>Keeping track of pills, pharmacies flag abuse of pain prescriptions
Efforts to track abuse of pain killers have stepped up in New Jersey, where pharmacies are now helping flag illegal use of pills. By entering the narcotics into a statewide database, pharmacists have expanded their role in the war on prescription drugs.
The database for narcotics like the pain reliever OxyContin is routinely monitored by physicians, pharmacists, and law enforcers to help identify drug abusers who manipulate the medical system to obtain pills for their own addictions or to sell in the lucrative street drug trade that rivals heroin and cocaine. (Fitzgerald, NJ Spotlight)