Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed House Resolution 4709, the Ensuring Patient Access and Drug Enforcement Act of 2014. The measure sponsored by Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) passed on a voice vote.
The bill does the former by amending the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) to clarify that when the Justice Department issues a license to manufacture, distribute, or dispense a controlled substance "consistent with the public health and safety," that means the issuance of the license has a substantial relation to the CSA's purpose of preventing diversion and abuse.
It also clarifies that when the Justice Department issues a finding of "imminent danger" justifying the immediate suspension of such a license, that means a significant, current risk of death or serious bodily injury is more likely to occur without such a suspension.
The bill includes language providing some protections to licensees who face a revocation of their registrations. The Justice Department must provide specific grounds for doing so, and if it alleges a legal violation, it must cite the specific law. The Department would also have to give the registrant the opportunity to present a corrective plan of action.
When it comes to ensuring patient access to prescription pain medications, the bill calls for the Department of Health and Human Services, through the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to assess "how patient access to medications could be adversely impacted by federal and state enforcement activities" and identify "how collaboration between agencies and stakeholder can benefit patients and prevent diversion and abuse of controlled substances."
The bill specifies that such an evaluation include consultation with patient groups, as well as pharmacies, drug manufacturers, health care providers, state attorneys general, state and federal law enforcement agencies, health insurance providers, common carriers, and wholesale drug distributors.
The measure now goes to the Senate.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
This is a nightmare.
This is a joke and a nightmare. The war on drugs NEEDS TO END. Look, I am an opiate lover myself and anywhere I am apart of a community I always am sure to let that be known. That being said, pain pills are great. They are great for pain relief they are great for fun they are great for most purposes. The fact that you need a prescription to get them is sad, the fact should never be over looked nor forgotten that pain pills, heroin, the so called hard drugs that so many are afraid to talk about, were available WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION in the sophisticated worlds for over a thousand eight hundred years and guess what, with drugs so widely and easily available the planet did not spin off it's axis.
The big issue is this. Doctors and people and the public and reformers in general, DO NOT UNDERSTAND opiates at all. The concept of addiction is another nightmare. I hate the term, I don't like to use it.
The fact of the matter is, so much is considered opiate addiction and that AA backed bull about the opiate user never getting enough too. The idea of the opiate user "always needing more" is just propaganda. THERE IS A THRESHOLD.
The problem is this. Take VICODIN for example, one of the most widely prescribed opiates. Parts acetomenpihen parts hydrocodone. This drug is only 5 MG HYDROMORPHONE and yet, 1 every 4-6 hours is considered normal.
When you learn about things like heroin maintenance and you find out that opiate users do find a dose that stabilizes them EVER DAY that they DONT NEED MORE FOR then you realize this so called never ending quest for more opiates is actually just an opiate user doing whats normal - needing X amount.
The fact is 5 mg of hydromorphone is CONSIDERED ALOT! LOL! THAT'S A JOKE! Consider a true opiate addict can take an ENTIRE BOTTLE of vicodin in 1 day, thats a 60-80 pill bottle. Yes, I have done it myself on a lot of occassions so it's true.
Consider that people with true opiate desires or needs need to get to levels like 500 mg or higher and then consider that 1 5 mg vicodin is considered a big deal worth monitoring and well look at the problem that exists. So many ppl called fiends are really just under-medicated.
I will always love and admire Dr. Cochrane who wrote the book THE OPIATE CURE it is epic and let me tell u in that book he defends a patient whom he prescribed 1000 mgs of oxy to. That's right 1000 mgs A DAY.
In reply to This is a nightmare. by CJ (not verified)
Hydromorphone
In reply to This is a nightmare. by CJ (not verified)
This is a nightmare.
You are the nightmare that causes legitimate pain patients to suffer needlessly. Thanks so much for the help!!!!!!
Thoughts On This
These bills are always bull. Yes they talk about keeping opiates out of the wrong hands and protecting practitioners and providing patient access but at what cost to the patient? I am a pain patient and the demoralizing bull that I have to go through to get the meds that I have a legitimate need for is criminal. I have more than enough clinical proof that my need is real so any suspicion of me should end there. Instead I have to go through psych evals that would offend anyone. I have to pee going in to prove I don't use illegal drugs. I have to pee through out now to prove I actually use my meds. I am under constant scrutiny the whole time I am under care with a doctor. I am constantly scared I will eat the wrong thing or take the wrong over the counter thing and throw a false positive. I go to fill my prescriptions and the pharmacy doesn't have them because they haven't been ordered because the pharmacy lives in fear of the feds sweeping down on them. Then I have to do what is called the pharmacy crawl which now makes me scared of the feds and cost me more money because I get penalized by my insurance for not using the designated pharmacy on my plan. Someone tell me where I am being helped by this. I am a legit patient with a legit need and legit insurance. I don't use drugs. I mind my biz and live my life not breaking any law and all I want is to go to the doctor and get what I need without undue hassle. Tell me how this is fair or good. STOP THIS SENSELESS FAILED WAR ON DRUGS. It does not stop diversion and everyone knows it. All it is doing is getting people on both sides of many borders killed and wrecking families from death and incarceration.
Ligitimate Patients Need Protections
Every month when we go to fill our pain medications, the pharmacy is out of our medications. Large pharmacies have put quotas on Opioid pain medications, because of multi-million dollar fines from DEA.
Suicide rates will be up next year, because pain patients can only be treated like drug addicts, told the pharmacy is out of medications, and go threw withdrawals so many times, before they just end the pain.
Kingman Miner Article on the Problem
http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?TypeID=1&ArticleID=58959&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&Page=2
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