ST. LOUIS (KMOX)-As the abuse of painkillers including oxycodone, Percocet and Percodan skyrockets across the country, Missouri is now the only state that’s not taken a key step to curb the growth.

The DEA’s Scott Collier says that despite a ‘dramatic’ increase in the sales of those drugs in the area, Missouri lawmakers have refused to establish a prescription drug monitoring program.

Collier tells KMOX those programs curb abuse, by allowing doctors to more closely monitor their patients’ drug purchases, “They can determine if a patient is being seen or getting prescriptions from multiple doctors in that area, which in turn gives the physician information so they know ‘hey, this person probably is a drug addict and they need some help”

Collier says now that Missouri stands alone, crooks will likely gravitate to the state, “They know when the police are looking and when they are not. If they can go to an area that doesn’t have a program that is designed to ferret them out, I think it’s natural that they gravitate to that area.”