Disrupting “Pill Mills”: Using Data to Investigate and Prosecute Prescription Drug Diversion

Presented by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Innovative Prosecution Solutions (IPS) Grantee

The opioid epidemic has devastated communities across the United States, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the past two decades. In response, some state and local prosecutors have taken a data-driven approach to the crisis. This webinar spotlights the experiences of an Innovative Prosecution Solutions (IPS) grantee’s efforts to tackle one troubling aspect of the opioid epidemic—doctors and pharmacists who inappropriately disseminate opioid medications. Tamara Holland of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office in Texas discusses data-driven methods to identify and prosecute “pill-mill” practices, such as analyzing prescription history data through Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and overdose death data from medical examiners’ offices.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be better able to:

– Collaborate with allied professionals to collect and analyze comprehensive data.

– Identify connections between at risk-patients and drug-diverting pharmacies and doctors.

– Utilize data analysis in conjunction with other intelligence-building techniques to inform charging strategies for prosecuting “pill-mill” doctors.