Numbers renew call to strengthen the Massachusetts Prescription Monitoring Program.

FALL RIVER — About 72 percent of Fall River residents have received a prescription for highly addictive opiates such as oxycodone and methadone, which places the Spindle City well above the state average of 40 percent.

“Based upon the statistics, we’re in crisis here in this community,” state Rep. Carole E. Fiola, D-Fall River, said during a meeting of health care providers, pharmacists, state officials, law enforcement officers and others who gathered at the Stanley Street Treatment and Resources offices Tuesday morning to discuss the Massachusetts Prescription Monitoring Program.

The state’s Prescription Monitoring Program is intended to prevent prescription drug abuse and fraud by compiling data on patients’ prescription histories, as well as prescribers’ practices, to look for irregularities and report any suspected malfeasance to law enforcement agencies.

But Tuesday morning’s conversation at the SSTAR offices indicates that local pharmacists, drug treatment counselors and others believe the system needs improvement, especially in the area of which law enforcement agencies to contact if they suspect someone is fraudulently writing or obtaining prescriptions for highly addictive Schedule II opiates.

Opiate prescription abuse is a serious public health and safety issue because those drugs often lead many people to become addicted. Addicts may then be prone to commit crimes to obtain those drugs. Several addicts will move on to heroin, which is cheaper but often laced with other potent drugs such as fentanyl.

Dozens of addicts have died across Massachusetts in the past month from heroin overdoses, which have prompted mayors in Fall River and New Bedford to call for police officers and firefighters to carry Narcan, an antidote that reverses opiate overdoses.

“If you have a fatal overdose, it would be good thing to see what the person’s prescription history was before they had their fatal overdose. That could help us develop some early intervention plans,” said Deborah Allwes, the director of the Massachusetts Prescription Monitoring Program.

Allwes said there are “a lot of reasons” why the overdoses are happening, with two of the biggest factors likely being doctors who overprescribe opiates and patients who game the system by “doctor shopping and pharmacy shopping.”

The problem is particularly acute in Bristol County, where about 16.4 percent of the population has received at least one prescription for a Schedule II opiate. The state average is 11.3 percent, Allwes said.

At 72 percent, Fall River “has one of the highest” Schedule II opiate prescription rates in Massachusetts, where the state average is 40 percent. In New Bedford, almost 70 percent of residents have been given a Schedule II opiate prescription.

“The numbers show us two things,” Allwes said. “One is that a lot of patients, when they see someone who can prescribe, are generally being prescribed an opiate medication. The other thing this is saying is there are people who are going well over the accepted threshold of the number of prescriptions by the number of providers.”

But Allwes added that the state Department of Public Health’s statistics do not fully explain why Fall River and New Bedford cities have such high opiate prescription rates.

“We can’t draw conclusions,” Allwes said. “Maybe there is a larger older population and more people with chronic diseases.

State Rep. Alan Silvia, D-Fall River, listed high unemployment, poverty, more public housing than most communities and low educational attainment as likely factors.

“We have an epidemic in Fall River like no other city or community,” Silvia said, adding that he has filed legislation that would seek to limit physicians to writing no more than three days' worth of opiate prescriptions at any given time.

Fiola compared the problem to a 500-piece puzzle with no easy answers. Getting people in a room and talking together, Fiola said, was a big step toward finding some possible solutions.

“This is the beginning of a conversation, and everything starts with a conversation,” Fiola said. “We have a lot of homework to do.”