Nova Scotia group calls for review of prescription drug monitoring program

A non-profit organization is asking the Nova Scotia government to consider a review of the prescription drug monitoring program after the program didn't detected a doctor who is alleged to have prescribed about 50,000 pills.

The Get Prescription Drugs off the Street society has written a letter to Minister Leo Glavine saying its members are upset by allegations against Dr. Sarah Dawn Jones of Hammonds Plains, who is charged with drug trafficking.

Jones, 35, is alleged to have prescribed oxycodone and oxyneo pills over 20 months to a patient who never received them.

It was a pharmacist who reported the suspicious activity to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the profession's governing body, which in turn called police last August.

The society questions how a "shocking amount of dangerous medication could make it from a prescription pad to the street without intervention for so long."

"To prevent future diversion and encourage responsible prescribing there needs to be an understanding of how such a large amount of controlled drugs could be prescribed for 20 months without intervention," the group writes in its letter.

The letter is also addressed to the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons and the province's prescription drug monitoring program.

2012 auditor general's report raised concerns

The anti-drug group was founded by Amy Graves, whose brother died from an overdose in 2011.

In its letter, the society asks whether the alleged activity raised any red flags and if so, what the program did if it was alerted, including whether it ever contacted the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

It also asks "What corrective actions do your organizations plan on taking to prevent future negligence and overprescribing?"

The society details issues flagged by the province's auditor general drug monitoring system in a report four years ago, specifically citing lack of consistency about when letters were sent to flag problems and the threshold when prescriptions were considered a problem.