HealthWatch

DENVER (CBS) ― It's a staggering number. Seven million Americans are addicted to prescription drugs, according to the federal government. Now Colorado has a new tool to deal with the problem.

Last year Rick Sallinger of CBS station KCNC-TV in Denver reported the state had approved a computer system to monitor prescription drug abuse, but years later still hadn't put it in place. Now the system is up and running, but some are questioning whether it goes far enough.

Here's how it works: Doctors and other medical professionals must enter each prescription for controlled substances into a computer. Pharmacists must then enter where the prescription was filled and how it was paid for. They can then tell if someone has been going from doctor to doctor or pharmacy to pharmacy.

One man who abused Adderall, a drug for attention deficit disorder, wishes the computer system would have been put in place sooner. Jeff Johnston is now in prison serving time for passing phony prescriptions and theft. Even with a misspelled word on his fake prescriptions (instead of "signed" it said "singed") pharmacies gave him his drugs.

At the Huerfano Correctional Center in Walsenberg Johnston told CBS 4, "My entire focus every day was getting my drug and how I was going to get money for that drug I lied to people, some of these people were very close to me."

A year ago, when he was a free man, he came to CBS4 and practically begged for help. He wanted to see a system where pharmacies would catch people like him to stop his pattern of addiction.

"I think if I would have gotten caught a lot earlier, I wouldn't have lost my wife, I wouldn't have lost everything that I own," Walsenberg said.

CBS4 reported that the State of Colorado had passed legislation in 2005 for a computer system so doctors and pharmacies could monitor prescription abuse, but two years later it still hadn't been funded. Now it is finally up and running.

Dr. David Micklin is a dentist in Cherry Creek North. One of his patients complained of a toothache. When Micklin checked the computer he found the patient had been obtaining a large quantity of prescription painkillers over the past several months.

"It's my personal opinion that he's probably a dealer and that's what really upset me," Micklin said. "I have a teenage son and we have all heard the stories about teenage drugs ending up in schools nowadays."

That's called "pharming" and it has been causing an overdose of problems in some schools.

"I contacted the state Board of Pharmacy to find out what could I do now that we have this great information to report someone like this," Micklin said. "I was pretty much told that as of now, there is no way to report someone like that."

So Micklin said he contacted the Drug Enforcement Administration. A spokesman for the federal drug agency says it follows up based on priority.

Meantime, the Colorado Board of Pharmacy is watching for prescription abuse on the computer. Chris Lines is a spokesman for the board.

"The system itself has to be monitored," Lines said. "If we are finding a person taking prescriptions from three to four different doctors, we have to alert the doctors and the pharmacists as well."

It's an innovation now former abuser Johnston welcomes.

"Is this bottom for you?" Sallinger asked him. "Yes this is the bottom. There's no doubt in my mind this is the bottom, no doubt in my mind. I've had enough."

While the state computer system is being seen as progress, it's not foolproof in stopping abusers. It only contains information from pharmacies in Colorado, not out-of-state mail-order or Internet prescriptions.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)