DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa is on track to see a 10 percent decline of opioid sales for 2017 amid national concerns about the abuse of such prescriptions. The Des Moines Register reports that the executive director of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy, Andrew Funk, relayed the information on Monday to a legislative committee studying opioid abuse.  Funk says Iowa health care practitioners are trimming prescriptions of opioid painkillers and other addictive pills. He says the state is expected to reach about 270 million prescription pills sold for 2017, down from 301 million pills sold last year.

The totals are determined by Iowa’s Prescription Drug Monitoring system, which tracks pharmacies’ sales of addictive prescription medications. Committee members say the figures are a promising development amid a national epidemic of abuse of addictive narcotics.