Missouri will no longer be the only state without a prescription drug monitoring program, but experts question whether the proposed program will go far enough.Gov. Eric Greitens in July signed an executive order that will establish a statewide database focused on identifying “pill mills.”The program will collect information from drug prescribers and pharmacies and use that information to identify locations that are distributing too many drugs.What the database won’t do, experts say, is prevent “doctor shopping,” the practice of visiting multiple doctors and pharmacies to obtain redundant prescriptions.Pharmacist Mitch Graumenz said doctors and pharmacists won’t have access to the database. Graumenz is the pharmacy manager of Legacy Drugstore in Wright City.He explained that what most pharmacists support, and what other states have put in place, is a database that acts as a prevention mechanism. Prescribers and dispensers could find out who else a new patient has been visiting before giving them access to drugs, thus preventing doctor shopping.But the monitoring program being set up by the Greitens administration would only be looking at information after the drugs have already been distributed. The information in the database will also be “de-identified,” according to a statement from Greitens’ office, meaning it couldn’t be used to identify individuals abusing the system.“It’s more of a law enforcement tool,” Graumenz said. “They can go after the doctors that are overprescribing, go after the pharmacies that are overdispensing, which is fine. But that doesn’t give a tool to your doctor, it doesn’t give a tool to your pharmacist. We lose the opportunity to treat the addiction and get the patient help before it’s too late.”Multiple proposals for a more comprehensive statewide database have failed to pass in the Missouri Legislature due to objections surrounding patient privacy.However, a number of counties have established a shared drug monitoring program that does give prescribers access to collected information. Participating counties include St. Louis, St. Charles and Lincoln, but not Warren County or Franklin County.Warren County Presiding Commissioner Roger Mauzy has expressed interest in joining the county drug monitoring program, and that other counties will continue to do so even after Greitens’ executive order.“There’s a horrible opioid abuse going on right now that’s killing people,” Mauzy said. “If this can help prevent that in any shape or form, I’m all for it.”Even as helpful as it could be, a drug monitoring program in any form is unlikely to be the end-all solution to drug abuse.Warren County Ambulance District Administrator Ralph Hellebusch said overdose cases EMS staff respond to are from a mix of prescription drugs and narcotics that are strictly illegal. The “street drugs” wouldn’t be as easily monitored, he said.In some cases, the drugs are literally mixed. For example, drug users sometimes combine fentanyl, a prescription painkiller, with heroin, Hellebusch explained.“We need some type of oversight to keep abuse from happening,” he said.U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has been another vocal advocate for a more robust statewide drug monitoring program. She said Greitens’ action is welcome, but doesn’t do enough.“I have serious questions about how meaningful this action will be if doctors writing prescriptions — and pharmacists filling those prescriptions — don’t have access to this database” McCaskill said in a press release.“The welcome mat is still out for drug dealers to shop for prescriptions in our state. The real solution here is for our elected officials in Jefferson City to get off the sidelines, and pass a robust statewide program into law.”Prescriptions