DAs working to keep drugs off the street
In addition to saving millions for Tennessee taxpayers, proposed reforms in the state’s TennCare system could reduce the number of drugs being sold on the street.
According to District Attorney Dale Potter, who has joined with fellow district attorney generals across the state in endorsing Gov. Phil Bredesen’s planned reform of TennCare. An offshoot of the runaway TennCare budget is that numerous drugs, prescribed for some on TennCare, are finding their way onto the black market.
“One of the problems our office has had to deal with because of TennCare is these people who obtain prescriptions and then sell the pills to others for profit,” Potter said.
Potter said TennCare has left itself open to abuses when it comes to over-prescribing drugs to beneficiaries of the program. Potter said the abuses have come both from those who are on TennCare and persons who have over-prescribed medicines. Both, Potter noted, are in line for prosecution.
“Our office looks forward to serious TennCare reform and prosecuting those guilty of fraud,” Potter said. “The liberal prescriptions have increased the flow of illegal pills on the streets and it needs to be curtailed.”
In addition to reducing the number of pills on the street, the Tennessee District Attorney Generals Conference believes TennCare reform can free up more resources to be used elsewhere in the state, including in further investments in education and even in the district attorneys’ offices across Tennessee.
The conference revealed 23 of the state’s 31 judicial districts are presently understaffed.