Sessions: Opioid Prescriptions at 18-Year Low
Sessions: Opioid Prescriptions at 18-Year Lowwww.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/10/25/sessions-opioid-prescriptions-at-18-year-low
Opioid prescriptions in the United States fell by 12 percent in the first eight months of 2018 and will decline even further in coming years, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“We now have the lowest opioid prescription rates in 18 years. And we’re going to bring them a lot lower,” Sessions said in prepared remarks at the National Opioid Summit in Washington, DC.
Opioid prescriptions have indeed been falling for many years, but the trend appears to be accelerating as many doctors lower doses, write fewer prescriptions, or simply discharge and refuse to treat chronic pain patients.
Sessions pledged to continue fighting “the deadliest drug crisis in American history” by reducing opioid prescriptions by another third over the next three years. That’s in addition to a 44% reduction in opioid production that the DEA began in 2016.
essions also promised to st
Opioid prescriptions in the United States fell by 12 percent in the first eight months of 2018 and will decline even further in coming years, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“We now have the lowest opioid prescription rates in 18 years. And we’re going to bring them a lot lower,”
Sessions said in prepared remarks at the National Opioid Summit in Washington, DC.
Opioid prescriptions have indeed been falling for many years, but the trend appears to be accelerating as many doctors lower doses, write fewer prescriptions, or simply discharge and refuse to treat chronic pain patients.
Sessions pledged to continue fighting “the deadliest drug crisis in American history” by reducing opioid prescriptions by another third over the next three years.
That’s in addition to a 44% reduction in opioid production that the DEA began in 2016.
Sessions also promised to step up efforts against healthcare professionals alleged to have overprescribed opioids. He said the Trump Administration has charged 226 doctors and 221 medical personnel with “opioid-related crimes.”
“These numbers will continue to rise,” Sessions predicted, because of new federal prosecutors and a data analytics team focused on tracking opioid prescriptions.
“This team follows the numbers—like which doctors are writing opioid prescriptions at a rate that far exceeds their peers; how many of a doctor’s patients have died within 60 days of an opioid prescription; and pharmacies that are dispensing disproportionately large amounts of opioids,” Sessions said.
“They will help us find the doctors, pharmacists, and other medical professionals who are flooding our streets with drugs—and put them behind bars.”
At no point in his speech did Sessions discuss the impact the opioid crackdown was having on millions of chronic pain patients, who are increasingly bedridden or disabled due to lack of access to effective pain care.
Earlier this year, Sessions suggested they should “tough it out” by taking aspirin.
While opioid prescriptions have fallen dramatically in recent years, they’ve yet to have much of an impact on the nation’s overdose rate. Preliminary estimates released by the CDC this week show a modest 2.3% decline in opioid overdose deaths from September 2017 to March 2018. Over 48,000 people died from opioid overdoses during that period, with most of those deaths involving illicit fentanyl, heroin and other opioid street drugs, not prescription opioids.
Sessions said the Justice Department was taking “unprecedented action” against fentanyl traffickers at home and abroad, including the recent indictments of three Chinese nationals and dozens of Mexican drug traffickers.
“China could do more to stop these drugs from coming here. Frankly, they’re not doing enough. They must do more,” he said.
AG Session is filing indictment against FOREIGN CITIZENS IN CHINA AND MEXICO and their respective governments are not going to cooperate with those indictments against those people. So Session’s action(s) is nothing but a LARGE SMOKE SCREEN.
Most decline in opioid overdoses but no mention of the increase use/abuse of Methamphetamine, Cocaine, Crack, Marijuana and other substances that substance abusers will find that works for them to help them to GET HIGH.
That 2.3 % decline was based on what number … the 70,000 that the CDC declared is from all drug OD’s are just those that are related to opiates OD… if the later then then reduction could be a couple of hundred – OR LESS.
But is fewer are dying and there is an increase in other substances being abused… then the total “pool” of substance abusers has to be GROWING… many of them are committing crimes to afford to “feed their habit”
Filed under: General Problems
He has to be stopped. Obviously he has never experienced pain, much less chronic pain. The ignorance of these political officials is deadly, when they use their power to make changes in things they do not know anything about, do not do their homework, and being objective on an important subject. It is very scary for these people to have this much power and to use it so unwisely. My health issues are not his business. He is not my doctor nor is he even qualified to be a medical doctor.
That was my exact comment, he’s an idiot plan and simple
I feel sick. What does it matter? I live in a world where the the crazy are in power, where All the President’s Men see a Snickers in the road, a block away. They kill 5 dogs, 3 little old ladies, start a 60 story building on fire, and burst open the sewer, flooding the city. They grab the Snickers in time for midterms and declare only they are making headway in lowering the Snicker’s trash in the community, therefore all intelligent people will continue supporting them in office. And really there’s no point in telling the beast that he destroyed half the city because he’s down the street pounding his chest in front of the news cameras about his victorious…. Snickers acquisition, bragging about cleaning the streets as promised.
And they want to take their Snickers cleanup plan to the international community. And knowing everything that has happened, the international community is preparing to accept it.
And I never wake up! It is real!
A.G. Sessions is all too consumed with the narrow view of prescription medication opoids as being ALL BAD.
This mindset is scary to me because of his power.
He’s assuming that EVERY opoid script produces only very negative effect. He has a goal of further reduction without regard to any of the positive uses for this medication.
Is nobody in his office staff telling him that this is foolish and he looks even more foolish on this bandwagon that is obviously unscientific and not within the scope of medical evidence in the least? It seems the entire thrust of his opioid campaign is all against the prescription by doctors for patients who need them.
Many of us are becoming desensitized to this rhetoric and it is becoming easy to just read these headlines and think “oh well”‘ thats just Sessions talking.
But when you really think about how idiotic it is to come right out and say that cutting down the number of prescriptions, just for the sake of doing something, is producing a positive effect is purely ridiculous.
Especially when one considers that in this current climate virtually 100% of the scripts are for a living breathing human being that will otherwise be pushed into some sort of life threatening action in the attempt to limit pain and anguish.
I guess I’m just getting afraid of what I would do. My pain is getting worse and I’m reading this stuff all the time. I feel the anxiety over it is becoming a problem also.
I’m not the type to kiss the ring of any hand in order to exercise my God given rights. I have no respect for the lot of them.
I do respect and appreciate Pharmacist Steve for letting me vent on his space here. It’s good medicine. Thanks Steve.