State lawmakers hope to close the loophole in the way drugs are prescribed and dispensed that set the stage for the Chris Benoit tragedy that grabbed international headlines last summer.

Called the Georgia Prescription Monitoring Program Act, House Bill 455 would establish a program for law enforcement, medical licensing boards and retail pharmacists to monitor the way powerful drugs are prescribed and dispensed. Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), a pharmacist, is the bill's sponsor.

"It's about time," said Penny Bordeau, whose husband, a former pro wrestler from Peachtree City, died two years ago as a result of easy access to powerful muscle relaxants and painkillers.

Currently, no real safeguards are in place that might have prevented the death of Michael Durham. The former professional wrestler known as "Johnny Grunge" was 40 when he died Feb. 16, 2006, a day after filling a prescription from Dr. Phil Astin III.

Astin, who has been indicted on federal charges of overprescribing two patients, wrote Durham four prescriptions for painkillers within a 25-day span of March 2005, including two prescriptions for 60 350-milligram Soma pills over four days, March 3-7, according to records Bordeau gave The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Durham was denied that final prescription at one Peachtree City pharmacy, but he found another to fill it. All 120 of the 350-milligram pills were missing when authorities discovered his body the next day.

"We could have saved his life, if we had this bill last year," Stephens said.

Benoit killed his wife and 7-year-old son before taking his own life at the family's Fayetteville home last summer. Federal authorities have alleged that Astin prescribed him a 10-month supply of anabolic steroids every three to four weeks between May 2006 and May 2007.

The legislation would authorize the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency to monitor prescriptions. Pharmacists and others licensed to dispense the drugs would be required to submit information to a database about when the prescription was filled, the quantity dispensed and patient information such as Social Security number, name, address and date of birth. The information would be available for law enforcement, state medical licensing boards and retail pharmacists authorized to prescribe.

Dr. Andrea Roberson, governmental affairs co-chair for the Georgia Society of Health-System Pharmacists, welcomed the bill. "We think it will improve patient safety."