Rob Schaaf

On the Trail: Lawsuit seeks to pull back curtain on Missouri legislators’ emails

By • Aug 2, 2017

Missouri lawmakers routinely have denied requests to make their emails available through open records requests. Now, a conservative nonprofit group is challenging the policy with a lawsuit that, should it succeed, will give the public more insight into how legislators make decisions.

GOP senator says he'll support bipartisan-backed bill creating prescription drug monitoring program

By • Apr 5, 2017

Updated at 6:55 p.m. with more details — In an unexpected move, state Sen. Rob Schaaf said Tuesday night that he now backs the House version of a prescription drug monitoring program, putting Missouri on track to become the last state in the nation to establish such a program.

The Republican from St. Joseph, who had opposed the House bill due to privacy concerns, said at a news conference that he changed his mind due to overwhelming support from medical professionals and from Gov. Eric Greitens. 

Political Gridlock Leaves Missouri Without A Basic Tool For Fighting Drug Abuse

By • Apr 14, 2016
Bram Sable-Smith / KBIA/Side Effects Public Media

At Richard Logan’s pharmacy in Charleston, Missouri, prescription opioid painkillers are locked away in a cabinet. Missouri law requires pharmacies to keep schedule II controlled substances—drugs like oxycodone and fentanyl with a high addiction potential—locked up at all times.

Logan doesn’t stop at what the law requires.

A pharmacist for 40 years, he has also been in law enforcement for more than 20, working as a reserve deputy with two local sheriff’s departments investigating prescription drug abuse. And he applies that mentality to his day job.