CLEAR News - Spring 2003
NADDI Holds 13th Annual Training Conference
Report
by
Martha W. Miller, L.P.N., Senior Investigator
Department of Health Professions
6603 West Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23230
NADDI (National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators) was established in 1987 as an organization to improve member’s ability to investigate and prosecute pharmaceutical drug diversion cases. It has grown from a handful of people at the 1st Annual conference to a hotel full of people (over 300 in attendance) at the 13th Annual conference, which was held in December 2002, in North Carolina.
Even though some were more than a little superstitious, (it was conference number 13) and the participants experienced first hand one of the worst winter storms on record for the Charlotte, NC area, no one could have asked for a more informative week. The conference attendees enjoyed receiving information on many helpful topics including: pain management from Canada’s Brian Goldman, M.D., Oxycontin use and abuse from Perdue Pharma, recovery monitoring from North Carolina’s Pharmacist Recovery Network, veterinary medicine drug diversion, pharmaceutical drug diversion trends in California, a landmark case review of a physician convicted of murder related to excessive and indiscriminate prescribing of controlled substances in Florida, updates on trends in diversion of Duragesic patches and of Pseudoephedrine thefts, a review of a complex Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist drug diversion case which spanned four states, and information on the use of canines to search for pharmaceutical drugs. To say the least the conference covered a variety of topics, all of which were relevant, timely, and beneficial to drug diversion investigators no matter where they were from.
The conference, which enjoyed attendance from representatives of 38 states and Canada, surely fulfilled the goal of connecting investigators to others who perform similar tasks throughout the nation. The 14th Annual NADDI Conference will be held in December 2003 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and promises to be an even larger and more informative gathering. I am guessing the attendees won’t have to worry about an ice storm that far down south!
Membership in NADDI is open to all individuals involved in pharmaceutical drug diversion investigations. NADDI welcomes CLEAR members to their web site, www.naddi.org, where you will find more information on the organization and on upcoming training events.