Budget Cuts Threatening CA Prescription Drug Database

LOS ANGELES (AP) — State officials say budget cuts threaten to make a California prescription drug monitoring database obsolete if funding can't be found by the end of the year.

Kent Shaw, acting director of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, said Thursday that staff overseeing the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System has been whittled from eight people to just two in recent weeks.

Shaw said there will be no one left to run the program unless funding is restored.

A budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this summer eliminates general fund money for Shaw's unit that includes CURES.

The database is used by doctors as well as law enforcement to curb prescription drug abuse.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state's Department of Finance, says no final decision have been made regarding the cuts.

(Copyright 2011 The Associated Press)