Officials with the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency say a new database is expected to help doctors and law enforcement keep tabs on prescription drug abuse.

Agency director Rick Allen said the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program has been available to pharmacists and physicians for less than a month. Despite that, Allen says 2,000 medical professionals have registered with the system and have submitted prescriptions for patients.

Allen says Georgia is the second to last state in the country to implement this type of monitoring system.

Part of the program's goal is to track whether patients are getting prescriptions from multiple doctors and using several pharmacies. Allen says some pharmacists enrolled in the program have already found instances of potential drug abuse by using the system.

Tags: doctors, pill mills, prescription drug database, pharmacists, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug monitoring program, Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency, Rick Allen