When addicts steal their pet’s painkillers, what’s a vet to do?

Some states are taking the war on opioids into veterinarians’ offices, aiming to prevent people who are addicted to opioids from using their pets to procure drugs for their own use.

Colorado and Maine recently enacted laws that allow or require veterinarians to check the prescription histories of pet owners as well as their pets. And Alaska, Connecticut and Virginia have imposed new limits on the amount of opioids a vet can prescribe.

Veterinarians typically do not dispense such widely abused drugs as Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet, but they do dispense tramadol, a painkiller; ketamine, an anesthetic; and hydrocodone, an opiate used to treat coughing in dogs. All of these are controlled substances that people abuse.

But even as some states push for veterinarians to assess people’s records, many practitioners maintain they’re unqualified to do so. And while a handful of states require vets to check the prescription histories of pet owners, about two-thirds of states explicitly prohibit it. Read more

The house of the wicked will be destroyed, But the tent of the upright will flourish. There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, And the end of joy may be grief. – Proverbs 14:11-13

There is always an evil cost assigned to rejecting God.