Los Angeles ? While a state online drug database went into effect last year to thwart addicts who bounce from doctor to doctor to feed a habit or make a small fortune peddling meds, there’s now a push to extend it beyond state lines to snare so-called doctor shoppers and curb drug abuse.

“The whole purpose of this is to have states communicating with one another,” said Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti, chief executive officer of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

Doctors can be hamstrung in making critical decisions about prescribing painkillers if they aren’t able to find out if patients filled prescriptions elsewhere.

A nationwide network might have helped Michael Jackson’s doctor better monitor the medication he was receiving from multiple doctors.

Jackson’s death and those of other celebrities such as former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith and actor Corey Haim highlight the dangers of prescription drug abuse. More U.S. teens used prescription drugs over any other illicit drug except marijuana, the Office of National Drug Control Policy reported.

Forty states have passed legislation to allow prescription drug monitoring programs, but only 34 are operating.

Under the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2005, more than $50 million has been appropriated to states for programs where doctors and other authorized users, such as police in some cases, can access patient records.

The law aims to have a coordinated national system, but there are no estimates of what that would cost and a majority of the federal money hasn’t been allocated.