Before a doctor in Arizona can prescribe a drug, such as an opioid, they must first check with a state database that looks at a patient’s prescription history. Ducey signed this mandate into law in 2017 in response to the growing opioid crisis.
But despite this law, Cronkite News reported fewer than 40 percent of doctors actually look at the registry, and there is little oversight to hold doctors and pharmacists accountable.
Sheila Sjolander, the assistant director at the Arizona Department of Health Services, joined The Show to talk about this.
