Prescription drug control and dispensing.

This paper is formulated to discuss the issues of prescription drug control and dispensing, particularly as it relates to the problem of drug abuse in general, which is the purview of the Committee on Drugs, The issues are several: 1. The large morbidity and mortality associated with the use of prescription and nonprescription drugs in this country. 2. The issue of recreational use of drugs, most important numerically being alcohol, and the many other drugs which are both licit and illicit, primarily illicit. 3. The issue of drug addition and how to prevent and treat it. 4. The issue of law enforcement with regard to both illicit drugs and the diversion of licit drugs and the increasing mortality associated with the trafficking and law enforcement of drug abuse. 5. The issue of restricting the rational use of medicines. The question of whether a governmental system which totally proscribes certain drugs and provides extreme restrictions on the prescription of others will reduce deaths and morbidity is an open one. There seems little doubt that our country has extremely prohibitive and restrictive laws and yet has a huge mortality associated with distribution networks of illicit drugs and also more than ten thousand deaths a year from drug overdose.