.png)
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says more doctors and pharmacists are taking part in a voluntary program aimed at preventing the abuse of prescription drugs.
The program allows doctors and pharmacists to check a computerized database that lists prescriptions patients have already received for pain killers and other controlled substances.
The program was passed by the South Dakota Legislature in 2010 and became effective in January of this year.
South Dakota law already required dispensers to submit information on each prescription for a controlled substance.
Doctors and pharmacists now can obtain that information quickly to determine if patients have previously received prescriptions for controlled substances.
Jackley says he hopes the prescription drug monitoring program will help reduce the abuse of such drugs.
