This is a discussion assignment. Can you discuss your thoughts on this, while pertaining to a criminology class.
Some states are taking the war on opioids into veterinarians' offices, aiming to prevent people who are addicted to opioids from using their pets to procure drugs for their own use.
Colorado and Maine recently enacted laws that allow or require veterinarians to check the prescription histories of pet owners as well as their pets. And Alaska, Connecticut and Virginia have imposed new limits on the amount of opioids a vet can prescribe.
Veterinarians typically do not dispense such widely abused drugs as Vicodin, OxyContin or Percocet, but they do dispense Tramadol, a painkiller; ketamine, an anesthetic, and hydrocodone, an opiate used to treat coughing in dogs - controlled substances that humans abuse.
But even as some states push for veterinarians to assess the records of human clients, many veterinariansmaintain they're unqualified to do so. And while a handful of states now require vets to check the prescription histories of pet owners, abouttwo-thirds of the states explicitly prohibit it.
"I'm a veterinarian, not a physician. I shouldn't have access to a human's medical history," said Dr. Kevin Lazarcheff, president of the California Veterinary Medical Association. California veterinarians have access to a state database with prescription histories and may check on pet owners before they prescribe for their animals, but they are not required to do so.
A veterinarian may be uncomfortable seeing alerts about his or her clients' history with controlled substances prescribed by their physicians, said Lazarcheff, who lives and practices veterinary medicine in Oakhurst, California
And if the veterinarian suspects a client is abusing drugs, what then? "That's an interesting point," said Lazarcheff, because there's no set protocol. The one time he suspected a pet owner of abusing drugs, his office called the local police.
"Where it went after that, I don't know," he said.