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<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0000CC"><a href="http://www.richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/stealing-fluffy-s-pain-killers-va-bill-aims-to-stop/article_3fd28817-ce40-509c-9c08-8f4b8d180363.html">http://www.richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/stealing-fluffy-s-pain-killers-va-bill-aims-to-stop/article_3fd28817-ce40-509c-9c08-8f4b8d180363.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0000CC"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Stealing Fluffy's pain killers? Va. bill aims to stop people from abusing their pets' prescriptions
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#333333;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l4 level1 lfo1">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans""><a href="https://www.richmond.com/users/profile/Ned%20Oliver"><span style="color:#454545">By NED OLIVER Richmond Times-Dispatch
</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">CHRIS AMARAL<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333"><a href="http://www.richmond.com/content/tncms/live/#3"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#454545"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Hydrocodone pills, also known as Vicodin, are arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Virginia’s fight against rising rates of opioid addiction has an unlikely new front: the vet’s office.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Prompted in part by a disturbing anecdote out of Kentucky in which a woman was accused of cutting
her dog with a razor to score painkillers from her veterinarian, the General Assembly is poised to begin tracking prescriptions issued to animals through the state’s prescription monitoring program.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">The system was put in place more than a decade ago to help identify human patients who visit multiple
doctors to obtain painkiller prescriptions. The new law would expand it to make it easier to identify people who frequently seek out drugs with high potential for abuse for their pets, said the measure’s sponsor, state Sen. William Stanley, R-Franklin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">“You’re talking about not just opioids,” Stanley said. “If your dog is afraid of thunder, they’re
giving a sedative. There’s a lot of drugs that, when they’re administered to a person, it goes through the (monitoring) system, but it’s not happening for pet owners.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">The measure passed the Senate unanimously and the House of Delegates 97-1. It now goes to Gov. Ralph
Northam’s desk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Stanley’s district includes Martinsville, which a recent study found has the highest per-capita rate
of opioid prescriptions in the country. Opioids, a class of drugs that also includes heroin, have been responsible for more than 7,500 overdose deaths in Virginia since 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Stanley said he proposed the measure after being approached by local veterinarians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">“They were concerned people who may be addicted to opioids were coming to their offices with injured
dogs and cats and were trying to obtain opioids,” he said. “And they were concerned they were trying to obtain those opioids not for the dogs or cats, but to feed their own addiction.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">It’s unclear how widespread the problem is. Several states, including Colorado and Maine, have passed
similar laws.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">While veterinarians don’t prescribe the most frequently abused prescription drugs — namely OxyContin
and Percocet — they do dispense doses of pharmaceuticals like hydrocodone and Tramadol, a synthetic opioid to treat pain and coughs in both humans and pets. They also prescribe anti-anxiety medication such as Xanax. All have a potential for abuse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">The case in Kentucky, in which a 23-year-old woman was accused of cutting her dogs with razors in
2014 in an effort to obtain pain medication, is frequently cited. But it appears to be the only story in which someone is alleged to have harmed an animal with the explicit goal of obtaining pain medicine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">“Thankfully, I do not have a member of our state association of veterinarians that has come to me
with that scenario,” said Susan Seward, a lobbyist for the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association, which supported the legislation following changes that put the onus on pharmacies to handle the reporting, and only in cases where the prescription is for more
than one week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Cases in which pet owners either exaggerate or fabricate symptoms appear to be more commonplace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">In 2016, the Fairfax County Police Department put together a pamphlet advising veterinarians how to
identify suspicious clients after a dog owner was charged with prescription fraud for taking his 10-year-old boxer to six veterinarians, from which he received Xanax and Tramadol after describing knee pain and separation anxiety.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">Dr. Kelly Gottschalk, who owns the Wellesley Animal Hospital in Short Pump, said she became suspicious
after a client repeatedly reported losing his dog’s prescription painkillers and asking for refills. In another case, she said she began to doubt a client who asked for a medication by name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333">“When I talk to colleagues, I hear similar stories,” said Gottschalk, who is the president-elect of
the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association. “It’s rare. It’s probably less than once a year, but we have certainly had those red flags.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans";color:#333333"><a href="mailto:noliver@timesdispatch.com"><span style="color:#454545">noliver@timesdispatch.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0000CC"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0000CC"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#000099">Deborah L. DeBiasi<br>
<b>Email: <a href="mailto:Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov"><span style="color:#000099">Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></a><i><br>
</i></b>WEB site address: <a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/"><span style="color:#000099">www.deq.virginia.gov</span></a><br>
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality<br>
Office of Water Permits <br>
Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program<br>
PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#000099"><a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx"><span style="color:#000099">http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#000099">Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218<br>
Location: 1111 E. Main Street, Suite 1400 Richmond, VA 23219<br>
PH: 804-698-4028 FAX: 804-698-4032</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:navy"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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