DEA’s Deadly Decision
As Prescription Drug Deaths Increase – DEA Reduces Restrictions on Schedule II Drugs
On Wednesday December 19th 2007, the DEA announced physicians’ are now allowed to write a prescription for a 90 day supply of schedule II drugs. Schedule II drugs are controlled and classified as legal narcotic and stimulant drugs with high potential for dependence and abuse, but still having therapeutic value. Other drugs in this category include Cocaine, Methadone, Oxycontin, Morphine, Ritalin, and Fentanyl.
In the wake of a prescription drug death epidemic in this country, the DEA has reversed the 30 day rule which was initially put in place to reduce the abuse of schedule II drugs. According to the CDC, the number of unintentional poisoning deaths increased from 12,186 in 1999 to 20,950 in 2004. The largest increases for prescription drug deaths were in the “other and unspecified” drug, psychotherapeutic drug, and “narcotic and hallucinogen” drug categories. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has stated that non-medical use or abuse of prescription drugs is a serious and growing public health problem in this country…an estimated 48 million people (ages 12 and older) have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons in their lifetimes.
Methadone, a schedule II narcotic drug contributed to 3,849 poisoning deaths in 2004, and other opioid (prescription) drugs attributed to 5,242 poisoning deaths. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) correlates the rise of Methadone related deaths to the increase of Methadone being used in the treatment of chronic pain; although there are no statistics to substantiate this at this time. Current statistics show that prescription drug deaths are killing more Americans than the illicit drugs. For the first time poisoning deaths have surpassed fire arm deaths and are second to motor vehicle deaths. Many of these deaths are caused by patients selling or giving their medications to others, as well as medical errors on the part of the physician.
The DEA made this change as a result of lobbying groups, patients, and specifically mothers whose children are being treated with stimulant drugs for ADD/ADHD. What these mothers are not told and according to the DEA, childhood use of mind-altering drugs is a foremost contributing factor to later cocaine dependence and addiction. Perhaps if these mothers were aware of the easy access to these drugs and the implications this might have on our society, they would feel differently. The CDC reports among all age groups, the largest increase of prescription drug abuse occurred among persons aged 15–24 years (113.3%). Unfortunately, the push from big business and thoughts of convenience will undoubtedly result in more harm from ill-effects of these readily prescribed Schedule II medications, addiction and even death for young and old alike.
Marti Hottenstein, HARMD Inc. (Helping America Reduce Methadone Deaths) Diversion Specialist asks “Why is the DEA allowing more drugs on the street before fixing the problem of prescription drug diversion, dependency and death. What is the DEA’s plan to prevent increased diversion and death as a result of this deadly decision?”
Methadone and opioid drugs are killing our children and loved ones. James Pethel III (23), only child of Mary Haynes (HARMD Vice President) died from “acute methadone toxicity.” Mary recounts how Jamie was placed on many drugs as a child for ADHD.” I listened to professionals, going against my gut feeling and my son still died in the end, from someone else’s prescription.” Now Mary joins thousands of other families throughout the United States fighting for tougher prescription drug laws.
Jessica Gerdes, (HARMD Treasurer) asks “How many more of our loved ones have to die as a consequence of ignorance and the deficient management of narcotic drugs before modifications are made to protect and preserve life? Where is the culpability”? Her ex-husband, Colin Gerdes, went to the hospital trusting and seeking treatment, and the medications that were prescribed to help him, killed him. There was no misuse or abuse…no intentional overdose…only a compliant patient following his doctor’s prescribing instructions. He died in his sleep approximately 6 hours after taking his doses of Methadone and Valium, exactly as they were prescribed. His parents had to watch their “baby” being carried out of their home encased in a zippered body bag. He was 33 years old.
Another HARMD member who wishes to remain anonymous due to an ongoing investigation lost her daughter to Methadone prescribed by her Primary Care Physician for alleged Narcotic Withdrawal (from Percocets for back pain). This member states “according to FDA Rules and Regulations this was illegal for him to do. My daughter died three years ago on what would have been her eighth day of treatment. I am still waiting for justice, for the doctor to answer to his crime; a justice that I don’t think will ever come. Why put these rules and regulations in place if there not going to be upheld? Why is it OK for someone such as a physician to commit murder with prescription drugs, I just don’t understand it.”
Please see the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/DEADeadlyDecision
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19 users commented in " DEA’s Deadly Decision "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThis decision by the DEA does NOT allow the patient to receive one prescription for a 90 day supply of drugs. It allows the physician to give the patient their regular prescription for one month, and two post dated prescriptions for the next two months which cannot be filled until that time. All this does is allow those on long term pain or ADHD therapy to avoid having to pay for monthly doctor visits for the rest of their lives (in many cases). This is intended for stable patients, many of whom have great difficulty due to chronic severe pain and illness making the monthly trip to their doctor’s office, and for those on long term therapy visits of this frequency are unnecessary and costly to the point of being prohibitive.
They are allowed to get 90 scripts just like any other med filling
every 30 days. As it is most patients don’t have to see their
doctors every month and the doctor just calls in the scripts….
This is putting more drugs on the street. As it is doctors can’t
tell who is stable and complaint and now were giving them more????
Kerri, you support anything that allows more drugs in the hands of
the addict or on the street.
Do you even care about the countless people who are becoming
addicted every day because doctors are so free with these drugs??
Anything to keep poeple high…try helping the situation instead of
supporting more deaths.
http://www.HARMD.org
Methadone is a rising problem in suburban areas. If the Drug stores offered a buy back offer on addicts scripts the effect of therapy would quicker to serve it’s purpose. More people are dieing because they are not aware of the dangers.
As you said, Melissa, this was already being done, but NOT by doctors calling in scripts because it is illegal to call in a script for a schedule II drug unless it is an emergency. Some docs would allow patients to get their scripts in the mail each month–however, this was a “gray area”. The new law simply makes it legal for the doc to give the patient two postdated scripts that they cannot fill until they are due, and this is intended for stable long term patients, not brand new ones, who do not need to be seen each and every month and charged outrageous fees and copays for uneeded monthly monitoring of a stable and unchanging condition.
Where is YOUR concern for these people who must drag themselves in to the doctor each month despite severe pain, and for those who are on a fixed income? This is not putting more drugs into anyones hands, as these people are not getting more drugs than they ordinarily would nor are they getting them earlier than they ordinarily would. All it is doing is cutting out the extra and unneeded visits to the doc. Some patients may need monthly monitoring–but that should be up to the patient and their physician.
PLEASE!! This does NOT put more drugs on the street!! This policy “change” wasn’t even a change at all. It was only a clarification of something that was already being practiced in most areas of the U.S. already, which was to allow a Doctor to write for an established and stable patient his (her) usual 30 day prescription plus at the same visit give that patient 2 additional prescriptions with orders on them stating “DO NOT FILL UNTIL” the date they would be due. How does this “put more drugs on the street”?
This clarification is primarily meant to benefit those such as cancer patients & other long term management cases who’s medication needs are well established and who do not need to pay for a visit to the Dr’s office every 30 days
TO THE MEDIA:HOW IS THIS A “DEADLY DECISION”? The writer of this headline is an irresponsible liar who uses sensationalistic tactics in a manner not unlike one who would pour gasoline on a raging blaze in the hopes of getting a better news story out of the result.
Perhaps you may wish to read this:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-14520.htm
Here is an excerpt:
“DEA is hereby proposing to amend its regulations to allow
practitioners to provide individual patients with multiple
prescriptions, to be filled sequentially, for the same schedule II
controlled substance, with such multiple prescriptions having the
combined effect of allowing a patient to receive over time up to a 90-
day supply of that controlled substance.”
You know Melissa, the sad thing is, you will go right on spouting your “my idea of what’s right must be forced on everyone else” rhetoric until the day that you yourself are afflicted with cancer or a similar painful condition, at which point you will say “You were right…this is terrible. I don’t want to go on living like this! Now please help me.” The only problem is, there is a chance that by then your kind may have had some success at whipping the public into a state of hysteria and help will not be available.
Who are you trying to save here? Pain patients in need of meds, drug addicts who WILL find drugs one way or another (if not prescription than illicits)or is it teenagers who will suck on cans of aerosol to get high (IOW when there is a will there is a way).
Your hurting far more people than your helping by fighting GOOD medical practices like giving LONG TERM COMPLIANT PATIENTS the right to NOT have to see a doctor every month for something they have dealt with and paid for treatment for YEARS.
Your fighting a losing battle if you honestly think your going to save lives by making it harder for people to get the meds they need–your just making drug dealors richer.
Actually, Melissa (and HARMD members), I think you are the one(s) who didn’t do your reading. If you will go and read it carefully, you will see that the patient still receives EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT OF MEDICATION under the new regulations as under the old, and it will be dispensed from the pharmacy in EXACTLY THE SAME MANNER that is, in three separate, prescribed supplies of 30 DAY WORTH of medication AT 30 DAY INTERVALS…NO MORE, NO LESS…
NOTHING NEW HERE!!The only difference is that only one Dr. visit is required instead of three for established, stable patients. Even this is nothing new. Most areas already did this. DEA only clarified this in response to questions as to whether or not this was acceptable
I ask you again, how does this put more drugs on the street? I really wish you people would get your facts straight before your hysteria kicks in.
These people need to be assessed on a monthly basis for diversion, addiction, and if they are actually using their “medication” and not selling it. These drugs are NOT safe and the children should especially be seen on a monthly basis.
The states that do not have PMP’s (prescription monitoring programs) instituted have no preventative measure in place to make sure that these people aren’t visiting multiple doctors to get 90 scripts for these meds. The people abusing the sysmtem are crafty enough and to doctor the prescriptions and go to different pharmacies. They have scripts in their hands for pills that they shouldn’t have unless seen by a medical professional. I can only imagine now how many people are going to be calling their doctor for a so called “lost” prescription and filling at multiple pharmacies.
The DEA instituted the 30 day rule to curb diversion and because many doctors were NOT following orders and doing what they were supposed to do, they recind this law???? They should be enforcing it instead of recinding it.
What about the patient who is clearly abusing his script….what medical intervention is he going to get only seeing his specialist 4 times a year? What about the patient who doesn’t even require these pain meds…because he sells them on the street…he can get away with it much longer only seeing his doctor 4 times a year.
At the Methadone Mortality Conference in July, the pain management specialists talked about increased supervision, assessment, and montioring of patients on these drugs….how is this NEW rule achieving that goal???? Specialists even stood up and said that Methadone in particular was too dangerous and unpredictable for them to prescribe, another said it is a scary drug to prescribe even though she uses it, others couldn’t believe that they weren’t aware of the dangers when they used to prescribe it.
These drugs NEED better monitoring not LESS!!!! If myself or child were on these drugs, I would definelty want a doctor to see us as much as possible to look for adverse reactions, drug interactions, increased symptoms, blood and urine tests etc…. Accutane requires monthly visits and blood work in order to get a prescription and it hasn’t adversly affected as many people as these drugs have!!! We are in the midst of a prescription drug epidemic in this country!!
Melissa
http://www.HARMD.org
My name is Brenda Sutherland I am a POPAN Power Over Pain Action Nework Leader in The state of Washington. I am a person who along with 76 million other americans suffers with pain. I have chronic pain everyday of my life. I am disabled because of a desease that there is no cure, other then to treat the pain. The name of my desease is rsd or crps . It started 6 years ago in my left ankle, and has spread to both my legs . The only thing that keeps me out of a wheel chair and able to fution is the medication that I am on. There is not a problem in this country with drugs to treat people there is a problem with unresponciable people that use drugs to get high. Weather you control the amount of drugs perscribed or not an addit will get their drugs. By controling the amount of drugs perscribed you are only making it more dificult for people who need these drugs in order to live a futionable life. People that have deseases that there is no cure other then to control the pain. Like my desease and people at the end of their lives with pain and cancer patients. You see when you control the amount of drugs perscribed then you are only controling those that need them not those that abuse them.
So, in effect the first article titled “DEA’S Deadly Decision” is not really factual or correct in it ’s stating that Patients will be given a prescription for 90days worth of medication, but it does not go on to describe that a Patient will not be allowed to get more than 30 day supply of medication at one time, and that after that 30day period they then have another prescription to take to the Pharmacy to fill it?? It would have made a better and factual article if it had carried the explaination given in response no. 10, at least the general public would not have misunderstood the meaning.
Brenda Sutherland, You bring up a very valuable point, those people in terrible pain are paying the ultimate price for those who are irresponsible and misuse these medications, how many more Pain Patients will have to die for the lack of proper pain control. ??
Many people who need these medications have been seeing a Dr. for a long period of time, this will give the Dr. and the Patient more control, the Dr. can make a decision about the stability of the Patient and the Patient can decide if they think that they need more visits or care.
Melissa…I would have been more respectful of your position had you not started all this with your sensationalistic but misleading title and then followed up with some outright lies about how this would somehow put more drugs on the street. 90 days equals 90 days period. No more drugs on the street (and no less).You have still not responded to my direct question: “How does this put more drugs on the street”?…because you already know the answer…it doesn’t!
The regulation you are referring to only addresses the number of Dr. visits required, and at that, only of well-established, stable patients.
The issues you now bring in (diversion monitoring, etc.)are peripheral and only tangentially related to your initial arguement. Let’s stick to one issue here.
76 million people in pain! That’s a lot! Some of them will be stable after time and no longer need to be seen monthly. YOU ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO DECIDE WHO MEETS THAT CRITERIA AND WHO DOESN’T AND NEITHER IS DEA (
(CONTINUED)at least DEA has enough common sense to know that. Apparently you don’t.
It’s horrible and tragic whenever a child (or adult) suffers any kind of accidental death, but your argument as it stands makes no more sense than it would to ban the use of automobiles because one child (or adult) died in an auto accident, and you totally negate your credibility by the fact that you resorted to lies and distortions in the attempt to make your point.
I’m a prescriber of pain medications. We are not using this rule to allow three-month visit intervals to every patient. On the contrary, it is being used very sparingly in our practice (e.g. the 70 y.o. man who has been on a stable dose for over a year, and who wants to “snowbird” in Florida with his kids for the winter months).
What no one seems to have brought up in the first place is that there’s no stipulation in the DEA’s regulations limiting a controlled substance to a 30 day supply. For a C-II medication (oxycodone, methadone, fentanyl, morphine, hydromorphone), I am free to write for a single prescription for as much as I think is appropriate. If that’s a six month supply at one time, there is no restriction against that. The primary limiting factor is, and will continue to be, insurance coverage. That is, most insurers won’t cover more than a 30 day supply on controlled meds, and most patients want everything for free, so we see them a month at a time and issue their prescriptions.
Thank you, Darren, for the clarification and for pointing out that there isn’t now nor has there ever been a restriction under federal law limiting a practioner to writing 30 days worth of medication at a time.
Melissa- why won’t you get back on line here and admit that you were:
1. Lying 2. Misinformed 3. fearmongering….or maybe all three?
You still havn’t answered my question. How does this put more drugs on the street?
People are blaming the DEA and the doctors for addicts. The problem is that the DEA and doctors do not create addicts, people do. Also, blame is being put on the DEA for not fixing the drug problem. The drug problem can not be fixed unless the addicts want to quit and most addicts do not want to quit until they hit rock bottom. Stop blaming everyone else because a family member is a drug addict and begin blaming the person who is really to blame…the drug addict.
I am a firm believer that the true solution to addiction is a total drug free lifestyle, not substituting one mind altering or addictive substance for another. As an addict who has been clean for over 7 years I can tell you from experience that nothing beats totally conquering drug addiction. Lets stop embracing the attitude of more and more medication that often times create more problems than they solve. The real problems surrounding addiction are unhandled cravings, and unhandled feelings of guilt and depression.
The prohibitionist mentality and lack of compassion betrayed by some posters is nothing short of barbaric! I hope all these self righteous asshats experience severe pain and cannot get adequate pain relief because of the policies they advocate so loudly for. What the hell is the DEA doing in the doctor patient relationship in the first place! The DEA is nothing but a repository for cowardly sociopaths who by and large are right wing lunatics. Most of these people overdosing were using other drugs in conjunction with their methadone. And to the ‘recovering’ addict–what do you suggest those in severe pain do?
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