Ready for another “War on Drugs?”
The federal government is taking its first steps toward rationing the use of popularly prescribed painkillers like Vicodin and Lortab by placing new restrictions on hydrocodone – the semi-synthetic opioid which forms the basis of these medications.
By a 19-10 vote, an advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed reclassifying hydrocodone as a Schedule II narcotic earlier this week. This reclassification would limit how much of the drug doctors can prescribe – as well as patient refills.
Obviously that would be terrible news for Americans with chronic pain – and a dramatic step in the wrong direction when it comes to government’s relationship with controlled substances.
“The FDA advisory committee is considering a proposal that could make it harder for patients with legitimate health needs to obtain essential medications,” a statement from the National Community Pharmacists Association notes.
And what for? Because the government’s “War on Drugs” has been such a success?
Sheesh … viva socialized medicine, people.
This ridiculous proposal reminds us of Barack Obama’s big push for “gun control.” Thanks to a few isolated incidents of abuse, the government is dropping the hammer in the name of making everyone “safer.” FDA bureaucrats don’t care about the millions of Americans suffering from chronic pain – or the crime (and law enforcement costs) bound to be created by the effective criminalization of another substance.
Government needs to be dropping drug regulations, not expanding them … because if there’s one thing the last four decades have conclusively proven, it’s that fighting a “War on Drugs” is as pointless as it is expensive.
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53 comments
How is this wrong? there is a real problem in America with people taking too much of these drugs and doctors prescribing too much. I have a friend who is living proof.
+90% of ALL the painkillers taken in the world are taken in the US, by 300 million out of the 6 billion people in the world.
Yeah, there probably ain’t a problem.
I’m sure the same could be said for pyshotropic drugs Zobro.
:)
You have to believe that a VERY high number of Americans are on some sort of prescribed medication…Especially in California, Fla. NY and the Rust Belt…
There is no other way to account for the number of Drain-Dead idiots who put their lord and god Obama in office..
Take these drugs off the Free-to-Beggers list and you may eliminate some of the Ignorance and bliss that supports Obama and demcorats like him…
Think “Rush Limbaugh”.
I agree with Fits on this one. More encroachment of Big Gov into our private lives and even deaths. If I suffered from chronic pain, I would not want some pencil pusher dictating to me how much relief my doctor could prescribe for that pain.
You cannot trust bureaucrats (including the badged kind) to have any sense in enforcing such matters. We have already seen in SC blockheaded bureaucrats singling out doctors who prescribe more painkillers than the average physician, bureaucrats too dumb to notice or realize the significance of the clearly labeled “chronic pain management” specialty of the practice. Whether the patients are legitimate is the relevant and legitimate question, but it is apparently beyond the ken of the simple(ton) paper-pushers. They have to be the same types who wanted to restrict the use of morphine (an opiate) to even the close-to-death terminally ill in agony.
People in long-term pain are most definitely threatened.
If Libertarians cared as much about freedom and justice as they care about Drugs, legalizing Ho’s and gambling…they’d be worth something to the electorate….
FITS ignored so much of Obama’s infringement nature pre-Nov. 6…and he constantly Bashes the GOP w/ a vengence…
So now FITS whines like a stupid little Dumb@$$ when the Tyrant he gave us, goes Gestapo on him…
You cannot be a Blind Idiot FITS, and not get butt-pumped by the pump-master you allowed…
You of all people need to STFU about any move on our rights by Obama…
“We must stop being the stupid party,” Jindal, a potential 2016 presidential hopeful, told colleagues.
With Obama drunk on power and running WIDE OPEN, for Jindal, or any GOP hopeful to be Bashing the party…he Shows he is just doing what the media wants. He is all BUT disqualified himself…
Be Proud of who and what you are. Reagan NEVER let the TRASH of the media and liberals Define him….He was like me. I am BRAZEN and I know what Danger Obama is…and i will shout it…and slap the P!$$ out of any piece of $@#!* =- like you- who gets in my way…
PS: Rand Paul said: ‘Right and Wrong Have Become Subservient to Hedonism of the Moment’….
He may already be ahead of the loser pack…Paul is Bashing the Crap…not his party…
That was easy. :)
If you’re a lib, it has to be easy…you’re too F*#!in’ Stupid and too F%^*in lazy to do it if it’s hard…
Not too F*#!n Stupid or F%^*in Lazy to write a BigT sentence. Maybe I can home school my kid into believing in Creationism and refrain from critical thinking like those crazy fucks in Texas? She wants to be a scientist like her pops…
Look one Big T is engough. Would Big T II change his name to someting else. Big T I does not need any help lying or saying dumb things.
It is time to “regulate” the currency of the “poor”. Low income folk who are on Medicaid go to free clinics or whatever doctors they can find who will take Medicaid. These doctors will prescribe huge quantities of pain meds with refills. The “patient” gets the meds from the drug store for little or no payment as Medicaid pays for it. Then they head for the nearest dealer who will buy them for resale. Present going resale price is $5 per pill.
I have seen examples of low income workers who may get injured on the job. They go to a doctor. When they get home the inquiry from family and friends is not are you OK? It is what pain med did you get? Can I have some? BTW they never report the injury as they work cash only and never pay social security or income taxes.
Did you turn them in? Why not. Doesn’t that make you an accessory and an enabler. You and Big(0)T belong to the same tribe.
Torch,
and what tribe would that be? Turn who into where? The prescriber? I have called DHEC about certain “pain” docs. What did they do? In most cases nothing. In one case I am assumimg they are the reason he suddenly decided to move back to South Africa. Be around “patients” long and you will find out that there is an underground info network of what docs to go to and which to avoid. I have reported sellers to LE many times. What happened? Absolutely nothing. There was a known seller who operated out of a dive bar everyday (yes 7 days a week as it is a “private club”) who has been stopped. BY LE? No, because he is now dead.
I think you are being a bit harsh to CNSYD.
And what’s with the “tribe” shit, kemosabe?
Torch is like the Gestapo or the USSR…
They are taught to Turn in their countrymen to their lord and god Obama (ie: the state)….
I told you what they are…and what they want to do…just look at the Gun Control Zealots…
Admittedly, it’s South Carolina, so how seriously can one take anything written, published or even imagined here. But WF’s piece on proposed changes to pharma regulation, and the ludicrous comments that accompany it, make even Mississippi look rational.
Be sure that CNSYD, referring to prescription drug abuse as “the currency of the poor”, also laments the habits of the likes of Rush Limbaugh and others of his ilk and demographic.
Meanwhile, just as guns are over-manufactured and distributed carelessly, so are addictive prescription pharma. While they struggle at it, adults continue to run Washington; they will work to regulate hazards to health and safety, despite what, to the contrary, libertarian delinquents may wish.
Meanwhile, just as guns are over-manufactured and distributed carelessly…
What the hell does that even mean?
Meanwhile, just as guns are over-manufactured and distributed carelessly…
What the hell does that even mean?
there are many decent people who are poor. i am sorry you know only the scumbags. remember, there are rich scumbags, too. you really should not hold poor people in contempt unless you know all the facts about their particular situation and maybe have walked in their shoes. the poor pay a sizable share of taxes. for example, the payroll taxes goes to about 108,00 or somewhere around there. well, after 108, 000, a rich person pays no more payroll tax but the poor never make it to 108,000 so they pay and pay and pay.
ceilidh 10,
I never said ALL “poor” were not decent. However SOME “poor” are well schooled in maximizing their “benefits”. You will find that they know the ropes on how to get disability checks from social security (or “crazy checks” as they call them). They also know that if you do work, you need to make it such that you are paid in cash so you are invisible to the IRS and payroll tax people. They know how to fake getting food stamps based on being left by their “husband” who really has gone nowhere. They know how to sell their EBT cards for cash. They know which doctors to go see to get large quantities of pain meds (paid for by Medicaid) that they can immediately sell on the black market.
I agree with you that there should not be a cutoff on payroll taxes.
CNSYD, good report:
The ones I know who get hurt at work want to know: How much is your ambulance-chasing attorney sue for?
Rush Limbaugh needs his fix. Anybody holding?
Here’s the real deal. The more control placed on the drug (i.e. the harder it is to obtain “legally”), the higher the street price becomes. Are those that make such decisions sometimes the very same ones profiting from them? I am willing to bet – it is true more often than we will ever know.
Restricting availability in this way does not change the addict’s motivation. In fact, it more likely results in a higher percentage of addicts with deep financial issues as well as more willingness to turn to crime to support their habits.
Drug restriction is not inversely proportional to drug addiction.
Just what we need……gun-totin’ pill heads!!!!
Awwww fuck! Now he’s got Florida Gov Rick Scott sending him checks. Next you know he’s getting checks from Lance Fucking Armstrong advocating for gonad removal.
Don’t people rob pharmacies for this shit? Potentially limiting legitimate users is bad enough, making more people hold up Walgreens is pretty bad too.
Not sure of the specific limitations this would bring or who it could potentially harm, but there is plenty of room for this to do more harm than good.
Somebody have some extra painkillers? Downtown Columbia? Please drop them into one SCSC justice’s box in the old PO building. He/She promises to divide the bounty with one SCSC justice who left a few years ago. Well, maybe not, but he/she will think about it.
if you’re in ‘chronic pain’,the doc would most likely prescribe,oxycodone;already a ’schedule 2’ drug.there’s very little difference between schedule 2 and 3,and restrictions vary by state.
all this will mean in SC ,is that you’ll have to have a written prescription for hydrocodone;the doc can’t ‘call them in’
most docs won’t call in schedule 3 drugs, anyway
this has nothing to do with the president or affordable healthcare…
I love how some of you jack asses think you know every God Damn thing! These “pain management” doctors are nothing more than drug dealers with a medical degree. Period. Instead of finding out what is actually wrong let’s give them pills to make them feel better. I am not talking about the addicts who are moving from one high to the next, I’m talking about someone who was injured on the job because of negligence on the part of an employer, yes it actually happens, and then their doctor doesn’t want to do the proper research or can’t because the company won’t pay for it, so what does he do? Here you go this will help and low and behold six months down the road that magic pill you were suppose to take as needed but no more than 4 times a day has become an 12 pill a day problem, but of course it was the injured worker’s fault because the big windfall of 500 weeks of 2/3 your regular pay is big money, oh yeah and then you can go on disability for the rest of your life where if you are lucky you can make 1400 a month. Yeah that’s the life!
Yep and double yep. Chronic pain syndrome is nothing but doctor induced drug addiction. Man up all of you drug addicts! Pain ain’t nothing but weakness leaving the body!
I brush my balding head every morning with a wire brush used for cleaning my barbecue grill. Grrrrrr.
There are people who live in chronic pain who work with their doctors to manage their pain legally and ethically. Living in pain is hard and not a picnic. Medication allows some to not just have a better quality of life but to simply participate. It’s a shame that those who follow the rules–see their doctor, follow the prescription guidelines, have a trusting pharmacist—are being penalized because so many can’t follow the rules.
….. and whose idea was it to put that brush next to the commode? — that thing hurts!
Sorry Shifty Henry, I keep aluminum oxide 180 grit sand paper next to my toilet. Don’t use no damn brush. And my toilet seat is made of rusty coiled Texas barb wire.
…… ok, that was a test to determine if you were in the Marines – I was right! — hah!
Without even getting into the efficacy of the “War on Drugs” or the legitimacy of this new move by the FDA, I take umbrage to the reference to “a few isolated incidents of abuse.”
The pill-shopping epidemic is not “a few isolated incidents of abuse.” It is a widespread, rampant problem that hits across the socio-economic spectrum (although it hits the lowest rungs the hardest). It’s so bad that in most parts of SC, heroin addicts are switching to pills due the relative ease of access and lack of effective enforcement. Almost thesame buzz, but with a dramatically lower shot at seeing a jail cell. It’s a win-win-win: the docs get their insurance (or workers comp) payments, pharma makes their coin, and the addicts get their high…
+1
Eveyone wants to drug test welfare recipients for illegal drug use, how do you test for illegal use of legal drugs?
Anyway, make it all legal and let the chips fall. You can’t protect people from themselves. If it’s not Vicodin, it’s vodka. There are always alternatives to numbing the mind.
So, so true! But those who live daily with pain that is debilitating really do need the meds, but they need to take it responsibly and work with their doctors and pharmacists. You can be responsible and take pain meds. The question is will you?
Isn’t this the drug that Rush Limbaugh is addicted to and went “doctor shopping”?
Nearly everyone will eventually have chronic pain. Chronic pain is worse than painkiller addiction.
Take the fucking Tylenol out of chronic pain meds (it’s there to cause liver damage and deter overuse, but does liver damage over extended use) and get out of the Nanny State business.
The idea that our bodies belong to the State is appropriate for North Korea, not the US.
Painkiller addiction is a minor problem. Crime to feed illegal addictions is a major problem. Chronic pain is an enormous problem.
Priorities should be evaluated carefully and thoughtfully.
1.Pills don’t kill people…..people do
1a. Pain never killed people, it was the hypertension.
2.This is a obfuscation of where the real money is made new drugs and 7 year old reformulations.
3.It’s preety hard to argue against the USA takes 90% of the worlds painkillers. Hey that works with another arguement.
4.If a Dr. isn’t going to take care of the pain, you can visit a nurse practitioner he/she can prescribe antibiotics and a stick to gnaw on. General Practioners will no longer be needed. (see #2)
5.Who needs vicodin when there is Everclear. 1 2 3
The bigger problem is the under-medication of pain. Sure, there will be people who abuse pain killers, but there are countless more who are denied appropriate relief because their doctors are afraid of the DEA.
Are you serious? Under medicating pain, how about coming up with a way of addressing the pain instead of masking it. I can give you the name of a doctor that will gladly provide you with all the pain pills you need. Most of your opiates used to treat pain are nothing more than lab made Heroin. How about we do a better job of finding a cause and rehabilitate the problem instead of giving someone the means to get high. The only people winning in that scenario are the Pharms and RX. And yes I have been there and done that, I speak from experience!
Your one anecdote of a doctor who over-prescribed you meds pales in comparison to the studies done about doctors who UNDER-prescribe medication because a number of reasons, including undue interference by drug agencies.
Why not let doctors decide what is best for their patients instead of leaving it up to “FDA panels” and DEA agents to dictate prescription drug policy.
And I just read your post above, where you admitted that you were taking 12 pills a day instead of the 4 that were prescribed. Was it your doctor’s fault that you ignored the presribed amount and instead abused them?
First of all it wasn’t me but a close family member. Second of all the doctors were very accepting of the fact that the pills would wear off and a larger dose would be necessary. It is not one doctor, it was a couple. The problem is not the dentist prescribing a few vicodin for a root canal. I am talking about a doctor, excuse me doctors prescribing an amount of medication and then proceeding to increase the dosage over time. If you give someone the financial reward to prescribe something buy paying them on a pill pushed basis, they are going to abuse the system, and yes the patient suffers. If you doubt me do some research. It is all a game to put money in peoples pockets and keep the sheeple coming back.
that should be by paying them.
This drug is so abused. It needs better controls. People sell it on the streets in the Upstate and get busted all the time. People do not seem to realize how damaging an arrest for this type of thing hurts them. You will have difficulty finding a good job. If you file for Social Security disability, you are likely to lose if you go in front of an ALJ. Also if have an accident case, the defense lawyer will bring these bad things out about you during Interogatories or upon cross-examination at the trial.
One of the reasons we have high unemployment in SC is because so many people have arrest records and cannot find good jobs because of that.
Regardless, a few bad apples should never interfere with a doctor’s ability to prescribe appropriate medication to his patients. Under this law your dentist can’t even call in a few vicodin because he can’t fit you in that day.