Nebraska:Senators working to help veterinarians monitor, report Rx narcotics

One of the last hurdles in Nebraska's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program is helping veterinarians find a way to participate to help prevent people from abusing narcotics prescribed for animals.The program was set up to prevent abuse of prescription painkillers and sedatives that can cause addiction, misuse and death from overdose. Nebraska was one of the last states to implement a functional prescription drug monitoring program, with the Legislature getting it done last year. On Jan. 1, dentists, pharmacists, some doctors and anyone else who dispenses prescription drugs began reporting each day all narcotic drug prescriptions dispensed within the state or to Nebraska addresses. The monitoring program stores the information in a secure database and makes it available to health care professionals. Veterinarians, who can be authorized by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to dispense certain narcotic painkillers, were exempted from that requirement until Jan. 1, 2018. But the Nebraska Veterinary Medicine Association sought to have participation delayed to 2019, and Omaha Sen. Bob Krist introduced a bill to do that earlier this month.