Curb opioid prescriptions

When I read the article regarding opioids, the only thing I agreed with was that the terminally ill and patients in hospice can acquire the needed drugs, no questions asked.

It states that Washington’s Health Care Authority will limit the quantity of opioids that doctors can prescribe to Medicaid patients starting Nov. 1, then patients under age 20 can get a maximum of 18 tables or capsules of opioid; older patients can get up to 42 (6 per day) tablets or capsules, roughly a one-week supply; then there are the exempt patients who have filled long-term opioid prescriptions in the last 120 days will be grandfather in (in other words, give them what they want?).

I am no computer geek, but I do know that whoever is responsible for the pharmacies computers could make it so that all pharmacies are connected and that one person cannot go to two or three different doctors and get the same prescription over and over; there has to be a way to stop this, I don’t believe that money is the total answer.

I am truly sorry for the people who have lost loved ones through drug addiction. There has to be a way to curb this.

Carleen Reilly

Spokane