Kansas will expand its K-TRACS prescription drug monitoring program with a $736,313 grant from the U.S. Justice Department, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
The Kansas Board of Pharmacy, which operates K-TRACS, will receive the money. The grant comes from a justice department program aimed at helping law enforcement and public health officials across the nation address prescription drug and opioid misuse.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 72,000 Americans died last year from drug overdoses.
“We are facing the deadliest drug crisis in American history,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “We’ve never seen anything like it.”
Stephen McAllister, U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, said, “Kansans and all Americans need to understand that opioid addiction is a national public health emergency. Tens of thousands of people every year are disappearing into a whirlpool of addiction, bankruptcy, divorce and death.”
The Kansas Board of Pharmacy will use the money to develop a public awareness campaign for K-TRACS, to conduct an audit of K-TRACS records and to hire a special investigator who will use K-TRACS data to identify suspicious and harmful prescribing patterns.