MPBN radio quotes Kenneth McCall in story on the increase in pharmacy robberies

Maine public () radio on Jan. 26, 2011 quoted Kenneth McCall, Pharm.D., associate professor and chair of the 51品茶Department of Pharmacy Practice, in a story on the five-fold increase in pharmacy robberies the past year in Maine. 

The state's U.S. attorney says they are being fueled by the abuse and diversion of prescription drugs, such as oxycontin. McCall, who is president of the Maine Pharmacy Association, says a recent five-year analysis of prescribing trends in Maine shows a sizeable increase in the use of controlled substances. "In 2006 there were two million prescriptions for controlled substances in Maine that were prescribed by physicians and dispensed by pharmacies, and in 2010 there were 2.5 million - but our state population, obviously, has been relatively flat."

Only about 40 percent of prescribers in Maine are registered in Maine's voluntary Prescription Monitoring Program to track patients' drug histories. McCall told MPBN that he thinks all prescribers should be required to be registered.

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