The Illinois State Medical Society wants the Illinois legislature to make it harder for patients to misuse prescription pain medication.
The group released a list of proposals, including one to increase the number of medicine disposal sites. Another would have doctors give more information to patients prescribed opiates.
Doctor William McDade, the medical society's president, says the plan is designed to be flexible toward patients' different needs.
"I would not want any legislation that says I can't prescribe opiates to them, or I can only limit the amount of opiates I can give, because there are some people who may need more, and there are situations where you need to increase dose in patients that become tolerant to opiates."
Other ideas include expanding a database that tracks prescriptions. McDade says that would help prevent patients from visiting multiple doctors for the same prescription.
Illinois is in good standing for the per capita prescription of pain killers. According to the state medical society, it has the lowest percentage of oxycodon prescriptions of all 50 states.