Indiana Prosecutors Urge Legislature to Expand INSPECT Program

Two Indiana prosecuting attorneys told a legislative committee Wednesday that medical practitioners should be able to use the INSPECT data base to check whether a patient has been previously prescribed an opioid or benzodiazepine, Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council officials say. According to a report from the council, members of the Senate Health and Provider Services Committee were considering Senate Bill 221 that among other items, requires medical practitioners to obtain information about a patient from the database before prescribing those drugs.

This comes as St. Joseph County Prosecutor Kenneth P. Cotter told the committee that he believes a prescriber’s ability to tell whether a patient is already receiving opioids or benzodiazepine via INSPECT might have prevented the death of Dr. Todd Graham. Dr. Graham was a St. Joseph County orthopedic doctor killed by the husband of a patient who the doctor had refused to prescribe a painkiller, council officials say.

“Since that time I have talked to hundreds of doctors that have reached out to me,” Cotter told the committee, as stated in a release. “They said ‘we have to do something about this.’ Please give doctors the ability to check INSPECT before prescribing opioids. It’s a quick and easy way to keep from over-prescribing these medications.”

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According to council officials, Madison County Prosecutor Rodney J. Cummings told the committee that in 2012, Madison County was first in Indiana and number two in the U.S. in meth labs seized, which he says has since all gone to heroin.

“By October our coroner had performed 231 heroin overdose autopsies," Cummings told the committee, as reported in a release. "One public health center in our county had 31 drug overdose deaths in an 18-month period. I hear our firemen say some people have been revived by Narcan three times in one week, some people twice in the same day. We could remove the burden from doctors if they could check INSPECT before prescribing.”

Indiana Prosecuting Attorney Council reports Senate Bill 221, co-authored by Senators Erin Houchin and Ed Charbonneau, passed the committee by a vote of 9-0.

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