DEA Bill Stripped

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November 8th, 2005

"Control over new painkillers taken from DEA and given back to FDA"

Legislation promoted by Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and attached to a multi-department appropriations bill was passed last year with little notice, but this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and many drug makers and doctors objected to its renewal. As a result of the House-Senate conference committee meeting yesterday, the provision was stripped from the bill.

The Drug Enforcement Administration no longer has the authority to review and potentially block the sale of all new prescription narcotics, which opponents said was an unwarranted intrusion by a law enforcement agency into the FDA''s drug review system. Pain specialists said the DEA reviews could affect development of new drugs needed by patients with chronic pain, but Wolf''s spokesman, Dan Scandling, said Congress missed the opportunity to better control the sale of new, powerful painkillers.

Spokesman John Scofield, of the House Appropriation Committee, said the provision was dropped at the request of the Senate. While controversial, the provision represents just part of an even larger debate over the DEA''s role in monitoring the use of prescription painkillers.

The DEA has arrested doctors, pharmacists and other health care workers accused of negligence or willful diversion in dispensing prescription narcotics that were later abused, but pain doctors complained that the actions caused many physicians to stop prescribing necessary painkillers. Scandling said the goal behind the provision was to prevent another OxyContin, a very powerful painkiller that has been widely abused by crushing its time-release mechanism.

OxyContin abuse has become a growing problem, and according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 19.9 million Americans have used pain relievers illegally in their lifetime. Consequences of using OxyContin illicitly include physical dependence, withdrawal symptoms and overdose, which can cause severe respiratory depression that can result in death.