The following story ran in the Missoulian and Montana Standard on April 27, 2008:

HELENA — A Democratic candidate for attorney general says Montana must do more to combat prescription drug abuse, which is now the state’s No. 1 drug priority according to a top narcotics officer.

“While our vigilance against meth cannot end, we must also mount a battle against this invisible epidemic,” said Steve Bullock, a Helena lawyer and one of three Democrats vying to be attorney general.

Bullock outlined a plan earlier this month to address the problem, which includes tracking prescriptions for certain narcotic medicines and making it a crime to seek the same narcotic prescriptions from many different doctors.

About 240 Montanans died last year after using some of the top 20 most commonly abused prescription drugs, said Mark Long, chief of the narcotics bureau in the state’s Division of Criminal Investigation. That division is under the Department of Justice, headed by the attorney general.

Only eight Montanans died last year due to methamphetamine overdose.

Click here to continue reading this story

Click here to read a column by Steve Bullock on the issue

Click here to listen to a Northern News Network radio story on the topic

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