The East Valley Tribune

Arizona soon will have a new tool to crack down on prescription drug abusers who move from doctor to doctor asking for pain killers.

Under a new bill signed this week by Gov. Janet Napolitano, the state can set up a computerized monitoring system to track when patients are using more than one doctor to get certain prescription drugs — a practice commonly referred to as “doctor shopping”.

Until now, drug abusers who visit various doctors and pharmacies to fill the same prescription multiple times were able to avoid detection because doctors and pharmacies were unable to share information.