Veterinarians required to ensure prescriptions really go to pets

Some state laws mandate checking owners’ pill history

Some states are taking the war on opioids into veterinarians' offices, aiming to prevent people who are addicted to opioids from using their pets to procure drugs for their own use.

Colorado and Maine recently enacted laws that allow or require veterinarians to check the prescription histories of pet owners as well as their pets. And Alaska, Connecticut and Virginia have imposed new limits on the amount of opioids a vet can prescribe.

Veterinarians typically do not dispense such widely abused drugs as Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet, but they do dispense tramadol, a painkiller; ketamine, an anesthetic; and hydrocodone, an opiate used to treat coughing in dogs. All of these are controlled substances that people abuse.

But even as some states push for veterinarians to assess people's records, many practitioners maintain they're unqualified to do so. And while a handful of states require vets to check the prescription histories of pet owners, about two-thirds of states explicitly prohibit it.

"I'm a veterinarian, not a physician. I shouldn't have access to a human's medical history," said Kevin Lazarcheff, president of the California Veterinary Medical Association. The state's vets have access to a database where they can check on pet owners, but they are not required to do so.

Veterinarians may be uncomfortable seeing information about controlled substances prescribed for their clients, said Lazarcheff, who practices in Oakhurst, California.

And if the veterinarian suspects a client is abusing drugs, what then? "That's an interesting point," said Lazarcheff, because there's no set protocol. The one time he suspected a pet owner of abusing drugs, his office called the local police.

"Where it went after that, I don't know," he said.

State prescription drug monitoring programs, or PDMPs, allow physicians and other practitioners to check a patient's medication history. But at least 32 states do not require veterinarians to report any dispensing information on the PDMP, according to the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws.

In the pre-internet era, most states required veterinarians to mail in paper reports of narcotic prescriptions. When states switched to electronic systems in the early 2000s, veterinarians said their offices lacked the technology to comply, and many states removed the reporting requirement for vets, said Patrick Knue, director of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Training and Technical Assistance Center at Brandeis University.

The experiences of Maine and New Hampshire this year illustrate difficulties states face when trying to stop the flow of drugs to abusers while also respecting the role of veterinarians in health care.

Both states enacted laws requiring veterinarians to check the PDMP database before prescribing, but the New Hampshire legislature repealed its law after veterinarians argued that their professional responsibilities did not extend to the human owner.

"Our patients are pets. They're not abusing the medication. The owners are," Jane Barlow Roy, past president of the New Hampshire Veterinary Medical Association, said.

Maine, which had 376 drug overdose deaths in 2016, a nearly 40 percent increase from 2015, has one of the most stringent laws in the country. It requires veterinarians to check the medical records of anyone seeking an opioid or benzodiazepine (prescribed for anxiety and insomnia) for an animal and to notify authorities if the pet owner has a questionable record.

Veterinarians also must get three hours of continuing education in prescribing opioids every two years.

But although veterinarians in Maine must check the database, they cannot enter prescriptions into the monitoring program. Only pharmacists are allowed to do that.