State Orders More Restrictions for Painkiller
http://www.wggb.com/2014/05/07/state-orders-more-restrictions-for-painkiller/
From the article:
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts is taking additional steps to restrict use of Zohydro, a new prescription painkiller, amid concerns over potential abuse.
State Public Health Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett confirmed Wednesday that the dentistry and pharmacy boards have approved new regulations governing how the hydrocodone-based narcotic is prescribed.
The Board of Registration in Dentistry voted Tuesday to require dentists evaluate a patient’s substance abuse history and current medications and provide a “letter of medical necessity” to the pharmacy before prescribing Zohydro. The state’s medical board issued similar regulations to doctors last month.
Meanwhile, the Board of Registration in Pharmacy voted Wednesday to ban pharmacists from dispensing Zohydro if they do not receive the required letter from the prescribing doctor or dentist.
Zogenix, the drug’s San Diego-based maker, has filed a federal lawsuit saying the new restrictions are unconstitutional.
I recently blogged about Gov Patrick first attempt to make Zohydro a C-I drug.. making it illegal in MASS to prescribe or dispense.. but.. a Federal judge over rode that lame declaration by the state.
Who could have seen this coming !
It sure would have been nice if they had been so diligent with their over sight of The New England Compounding Center… that killed nearly 70 pts and made another 700 seriously ill with their contaminated Methylprednisolone Inj that they were compounding… but contaminated with a FUNGUS.. Maybe they are trying to compensate for the previous slip-shot oversight.. by over reacting to the introduction of Zohydro ER to the market place.
Filed under: General Problems
We have nobody to blame for this mess but ourselves. If pharmacists were diligent in doing their jobs and minimized the diversion of controlled substances we wouldn’t need some asswipe political hack to do it for us. By dispensing drugs based on any piece of paper that looks like a prescription we have abdicated our responsibility and allowed others to step in and take away the control that is ours by license and by law. How far we have fallen from Most Trusted Profession status. Now we have pharmacists who advocate legal action against other pharmacists who refuse to fill questionable scripts. We have pharmacists who think its a good idea to give out a few pills until a questionable script can be verified. (newsflash: just because a prescriber verifies that he wrote an rx doesn’t make it legit). So this is what it has come to. Pharmacists can’t be trusted to refuse bogus prescriptions so the politicians want to take that part of our job away from us. Fill the good ones. Bust the bad ones. YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE !
Mark, I totally agree with you and Steve. I feel that everything now is to protect addicts and just forget about the chronic pain patient. My lord how this country has changed for the worst and forget about any compassion, thanks to Dr. Kolondy addiction specialist. He must be rolling in dough from Suboxone maker now. I just read an article on MSN about the 8 legal addictive drugs , he was the pro addiction counselor on that article. I tell ya, I’m so sick of about hearing about this epidemic crap, it’s so over reacting! What is it going to take to STOP all this negative media? The harm it’s causing is far over reaching.. No common sense at all. I am very worried about the future for so many innocent people.
This is just amazing beyond belief the lengths the media and politicians will go thru over a medication that’s not as dangerous as the media is making it. All pain medications need to be used with caution and as directed by the prescribing doctor, everyone should know this by now.
But how far is too far on this hype over Zohydro ER. This phrase I keep hearing Zohydro is 10 times stronger than Vicodin or Zohydro is more potent than etc. etc.
Well hydrocodone is no more potent than hydrocodone why because hydrocodone is hydrocodone is hydrocodone you cant make it more potent because its just hydrocodone.
Zohydro is a time released tablet that contains hydrocodone only it has no acetaminophen in the tablet. It will release a small amount of hydrocodone every hour. But its still the same hydrocodone that’s in Vicoden, Norco and Lorcet and all the generics. So yet again the media is frightening people, scaring doctors in to not prescribing it to people who could benefit from it. Zohdyro is to be swallowed whole by people who suffer from severe chronic pain. This medication was not made for addicts to abuse it like they did OxyContin . Don’t take away a good pain medication for those that suffer from chronic pain because of a few that abuse it. Anyone can abuse any medication like benzodiazepines ,we that suffer from chronic pain should not have to suffer the consequences of the people that don’t use this medication properly. We need to stop looking out for the people that abuse and take care of the suffering.