putting tighter controls on doctors.
“One of the ideas was to perhaps limit the number of certain kinds of opioids that a doctor can prescribe, for instance after surgery,” Lambert said. “Instead of giving patients a three-month supply, give them 10 or 15 pills, whatever is appropriate for the near term, then make sure the doctor has to follow up with the patient before they can be given more.”
Another suggestion includes making it mandatory for doctors to submit prescription data to be checked by regulators. “There are many ideas on the table already,” he said. “Some of them may have been brought up before, or there may have been similar ideas, but we need to be thorough if we are going to have an impact.”
According to Lambert, it is important that the government steps up to face the crisis, rather than taking a back seat.
“This form of addiction has gotten so bad,” Lambert added. “I think some libertarians might say it’s not the government’s business to interfere in any of this, and if people want to smoke pot or whatever, let them do that. But this is a very different problem. This is not a voluntary choice on the part of a lot of people who are addicted. They are doing whatever they can to survive.”
