( KTRS ) Mayor Francis Slay will sign into law today a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program within the City of St. Louis.

Officials say that ‘Board Bill 36’ will allow the City and St. Louis County, which recently enacted a PDMP ordinance there, to work together to form a cohesive system. This local action follows the inaction by the Missouri State Legislature to establish a statewide database to monitor the prescribing and dispensing controlled substances.

Prescription drug abuse is one of the fasted growing drug problems in the United States and has been classified as an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Missouri remains the only state in the country without a PDMP.