Combating Prescription Drug Abuse

SafeMeds: Tracking and flagging drug diversion

Drug diversion is the practice of transferring legally prescribed medications from the patient for whom it was prescribed to another entity, usually for illegal use or abuse. Drug diversion happens all too often, and is directly related to the increase in prescription drug abuse.

At J M Smith Corporation, we are committed to being part of the solution to prevent drug diversion. From compliance programs to software, from education to policies and guidelines, we hold ourselves and our pharmacy customers to the highest standards. Our comprehensive program, called SafeMeds, includes software to track trends and opioid purchasing, compliance monitoring and educational components.

Support for our communities

Supporting our community is in our DNA at J M Smith Corporation. It was a fundamental value of our founder, and his legacy lives in all of us. We are proud to help groups who are working to prevent addiction and help those with addiction on their way to recovery, including:

Will’s Work
Will’s Work was formed after a family turned a terrible loss into a mission to “create a paradigm shift away from the Bystander Effect” prevalent on high school and college campuses. J M Smith and its Foundation are proud to sponsor this group’s work in the community, providing “Speak Up – Speak Out” workshops to educate students, faculty and community members on how to help those caught up in addiction before it is too late. Learn more at www.willswork.org.

Naloxone kits for first responders
Often, the time it takes to get someone in an active overdose to a medical facility is more time than that person has to survive. Equipping first responders with naloxone (an opiate antidote, brand name Narcan) allows them to treat emergency overdoses immediately. J M Smith has been at the front of the effort to equip police departments with the tools they need to offer life-saving assistance. J M Smith first granted funding for naloxone kits to the Benton (AR) Police Department, and most recently funded kits for Spartanburg (SC) County.

Education
We know that stopping addiction before it begins is the most effective way to combat abuse. So our in-house experts make it a point to offer educational opportunities on diversion, the dangers of medication misuse and on resources and tools that can help. We spent countless hours talking to high schools, colleges, pharmacy schools and associations and held town hall meetings on what can be done to prevent addiction and diversion.