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HAMILTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow today
announced a number of stringent reforms
designed to curtail the improper prescription,
distribution, possession and usage of anabolic
steroids, Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) among
law enforcement personnel and state and
local employees.
Attorney
General Dow announced the reforms at the
New Jersey Forensic Science Technology Center
in Hamilton, where drug analysis is performed.
The reforms follow an assessment by a Study
Group which was tasked by the Attorney General
with examining law enforcement drug testing
policies, the role physicians may play when
these drugs are improperly dispensed, greater
insurance and prescription monitoring, and
the costs to the public.
According
to the report, issued by the Study Group,
the legitimate medical uses of steroids,
HGH and HCG are limited to a very small
number of medical conditions. However, because
there was little scrutiny until recently
of prescription claims filed by law enforcement
officers and others receiving steroids,
HGH and HCG, the potential for improper
prescribing of these substances was high.
In addition, the lack of disciplinary action
by regulators against physicians who improperly
prescribed these substances and the failure
to adequately screen and monitor prescription
drugs created a recipe for abuse.
“It
is important that we strengthen oversight,
regulation and investigation in order to
discourage the improper use of steroids
throughout New Jersey’s law enforcement
community and ensure the public’s
confidence,” said Attorney General
Dow. “Law enforcement holds a special
trust based on its authority and must be
held to the highest standard of professionalism.
These reforms tighten the safeguards against
abuse not only by law enforcement, but by
other members of public health plans and
doctors who improperly prescribe these substances.”
The
Attorney General’s reforms address
three key issues: misuse of anabolic steroids
and human growth hormones, improper prescription
of these substances by physicians, and increased
health care costs linked to such conduct.
Attorney General Dow intends to adopt the
following recommendations made in the report.
With
regard to users of these medications, the
Study Group made several recommendations:
- The
Attorney General’s Law Enforcement
Drug Testing Policy will be amended to
add anabolic steroids to the list of substances
tested for under the Policy. Testing of
officers will be conducted at the discretion
of the law enforcement executive.
- The
Drug Testing Policy will also be amended
to require officers who test positive
for a controlled dangerous substance or
steroid to produce a letter from the prescribing
physician confirming that the substance
is being administered for a medically
recognized purpose after appropriate diagnosis
and that use of the substance does not
render the officer unfit for duty.
- The
Attorney General is encouraging local
law enforcement to require self-reporting
of anabolic steroids or HGH pursuant to
her authority to determine fitness for
duty.
- Once
the Drug Testing Policy has been amended,
the Attorney General will issue a memorandum
to all law enforcement under her authority
advising them of these changes
and, more generally, about potential criminal
and employment penalties that arise from
improperly obtaining, possessing or distributing
these substances.
- The
Attorney General’s office has submitted
a recommendation to the Division of Pensions
and Benefits that HGH prescriptions and
most (approx. 80 percent) of anabolic
steroid prescriptions be filled by mail
order only by Medco, the State of New
Jersey’s prescription benefits manager,
to ensure complete fidelity to its new
protocols instituted on March 1, 2011.
With
regard to physicians, the Study Group recommended
the following:
- The
Attorney General will convene a working
group of investigators, prosecutors and
attorneys who handle prescription drug
fraud. This working group will meet on
a quarterly basis to share information,
update counterparts on any new reporting,
tips, complaints or information received
from informants or defendants seeking
plea deals and other “word on the
street” information.
- The
Attorney General is directing the State
Board of Medical Examiners to review current
regulations related to anabolic steroids
and HGH and to convene a panel of experts
to propose amendments that will curtail
prescription of HGH for anti-aging purposes.
- As
part of the implementation of the Prescription
Monitoring Program, in addition to anabolic
steroids, which will be tracked along
with all Schedule II-V drugs, the Director
of the Division of Consumer Affairs, pursuant
to statutory authority given to him, will
include HGH among the substances the database
tracks.
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The Study Group has recommended that the
Attorney General call for passage of legislation
that will specifically target the unlawful
prescription of medications by
physicians. While state law currently
provides for criminal sanction for health
care claims fraud and improper dispensing
of Schedule III substances, the Attorney
General is
supportive of a bill that would broadly
address fraudulent and deceptive practices
in this area.
With
regard to costs, the Study Group discovered
the following:
The
Study Group was advised by Medco that the
total cost to the state benefit plan for
anabolic steroid and HGH prescriptions in
2010 was a little more than $11.2 million,
which included about $6.3 million for treatment
of roughly 6,000 individuals prescribed
anabolic steroids and about $4.9 million
for just over 200 patients who received
human growth hormone. Prescription of anabolic
steroids ranked 45th out of the 172 subcategories
of prescriptions filled by Medco, and HGH
rated 53rd. The safeguards will discourage
improper prescription and dispensing of
these substances by health care professionals.
Attorney
General Dow stated, “With these reforms
in place, users will officially be on notice,
prosecutors will be better armed to prosecute
abusers, and hopefully health insurers will
be better positioned to control the exorbitant
costs associated with the misuse of steroids.”
The
report notes that the State’s ability
to prosecute law enforcement officers for
improperly using steroids and billing them
to public health plans was hindered in the
past by the officers’ ability to claim
that they thought what they were doing was
proper because doctors were prescribing
the substances, pharmacies were dispensing
them, and insurers were paying for them.
The Study Group concludes that one of the
most effective ways to improve the State’s
ability to investigate and prosecute abusers
is to force them out of the doctor’s
office, through the recommended reforms,
and relegate them to black market sources.
Prosecutors then can avoid defenses centered
on the fact that the substances were prescribed
by a medical practitioner.
The
Attorney General assembled the Study Group
following a newspaper series that revealed
that members of law enforcement have sought
anabolic steroids, HGH and HCG for the purposes
of muscle enhancement and/or “lifestyle
improvement.”
Attorney
General Dow commended the members of the
Study Group for their examination and recommendations.
The
Study Group includes: First Assistant Attorney
General Phillip Kwon, Division of Criminal
Justice Director Stephen Taylor, Division
of Criminal Justice Deputy Directors Dermot
O’Grady and Riza Dagli, Division of
Consumer Affairs Director Thomas Calcagni,
Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan,
Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes,
Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini,
Hoboken Public Safety Director Angel Alicea,
Assistant Attorney General Sharon Joyce,
Deputy Attorney General Joseph Fanaroff,
and New Jersey Public Employees’ Health
Benefit Programs Manager David Pointer.
The
Study Group consulted with representatives
from the New Jersey State Police Benevolent
Association, the State Troopers Fraternal
Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey
State Association of Chiefs of Police and
Medco.
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