Santa Clara County Jails To Stop Prescribing Two Rx Drugs
Santa Clara County is declining to prescribe two expensive psychotropic drugs -- Seroquel and Wellburtrin -- to jail inmates except in "special cases." Officials say inmates were pretending to be schizophrenic or depressed to obtain the drugs, which cost the county $614,000 last year. Attorneys with The Public Interest Law Firm, a San Jose not-for-profit that often represents inmates, said the group does not object to Santa Clara County's new policy as long as the decision to withhold prescription drugs is made on a case-by-case basis.
- "Santa Clara County Jails Cut Off Prescription Pipeline" (Kaplan, San Jose Mercury News, 4/6).