NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's death rate from drug overdoses has nearly tripled since 1999, a trend that state officials are trying to reverse with expanded regulations.

Proposals include one from Gov. Bill Haslam that would require doctors and pharmacists to consult a controlled substance database before writing or dispensing such prescriptions.

State Sen. Ken Yager, R-Harriman, tells The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/zzV5V0 ) that he believes new state regulations will help reduce drug overdose deaths.

The Legislature last year passed Yager's bill that imposed unprecedented regulations on pain management clinics in an effort to crack down on so-called pill mills. The new regulations, which took effect Jan. 1, require pain clinics to register with the Tennessee Department of Health, outlaw cash payments for treatment and require licensed physicians to be present in the clinic at least 20 percent of the time.

Through Friday, 147 pain clinics had successfully registered with the Department of Health, the newspaper reported. Applications by 19 other clinics were rejected, either because a doctor did not own the clinic or because the medical director had previously been disciplined for inappropriately prescribing a controlled substance.

Meanwhile, Yager is looking to close a loophole that enables patients with pain pill addictions to shop for doctors who will give them access to prescriptions such as oxycodone, Vicodin and morphine.

The efforts come after a 2010 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Tennessee ranked eighth nationally in drug overdose deaths.

The death rate for drug overdoses has nearly tripled to 16 deaths per 100,000 people in Tennessee since 1999, according to data from the state Division of Health Statistics.

For families, those statistics represent the deaths of loved ones addicted to such drugs as hydrocodone and oxycodone.

Brenda Roberts had long feared her son would die from his battle with drugs.

"I always thought he'd die in a drug deal gone bad, or that cocaine would take him, said Roberts, who had watched her son fight a crack addiction for 23 years.

On Oct. 11, her darkest premonitions came true when her son Mark Roberts died after an overdose at age 42.

But her son didn't die on a street corner, and it wasn't from crack.

Mark Roberts died on his mother's couch inside her home after he took drugs prescribed for him by a local pain clinic and given to him at a nearby pharmacy.

Brenda Roberts said coping with her son's death has been more painful because it was medical professionals, not drug dealers, who doled out the narcotics and anti-depressants that led to his overdose.