Fighting prescription drug abuse

HIAWASSEE - Law enforcement officers from six northeast Georgia counties are in Hiawassee today to learn new ways to fight prescription drug abuse.

Thirty of them were scheduled to attend from Towns, Union, Rabun, Habersham, White and Lumpkin counties hoping to learn how to spot emerging trends of illegal trafficking and abuse of prescription medications.

The seminar is hosted and sponsored by the Towns County Sheriff's Office. Educational support is being provided by pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of an overall effort to help combat illegal trafficking and abuse of prescription drugs.

Areas to be covered include: drug identification, lawful prescribing, helping law enforcement officers spot diversion of medications and interacting with neighboring law enforcement agencies to report pharmacy robberies and identify suspects.

The sessions will also highlight the RxPATROL program. RxPATROLO is a data collection system developed and funded by Purdue to collect, analyze and disseminate information on pharmacy thefts in order to assist law enforcement efforts to apprehend suspects and to help pharmacists guard against robberies and burglaries.