Grassley Backs Hearing On Controlled Substances
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Grassley–295069131.html
Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the leaders of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control, Wednesday announced the caucus will hold a hearing on the quota system used to manage
controlled substances in medicine in light of a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing problems in the way the program is managed.
“The quota system has to work well because it serves two important purposes,” Grassley said. “It restricts controlled substances to prevent illicit use and addiction. It also manages the availability of controlled substance for medical use, including surgery. The government agencies involved haven’t been working well together to meet these two goals. The GAO report and the hearing will help the agencies and Congress fix the management problems that are getting in the way of achieving both quota system goals.”
The GAO report found that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which is responsible for setting quotas for manufacturing controlled substances, does not have a collaborative relationship with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates medical drug safety, among other management shortcomings. The report makes recommendations to improve the management. Medical experts have complained of shortages of medically necessary drugs over the management problems.
The hearing is planned for Tuesday, April 14, 2015. Witnesses are expected to include a representative of the DEA, the FDA and the GAO. A witness list and other details will be released at a later date.
Filed under: General Problems
Remember the so called ‘Adderall shortage’ a few years ago?? One of our wholesaler reps said that was related to the DEA production quotas. I believe that was about the time that Adult ADD was being promoted by the manufacturers and suddenly EVERYONE was on Adderall. I was pharmacy hopping trying to keep my son supplied for his already diagnosed ADD. I was ticked because commons sense was if they were going to increase the need, why didnt they increase the quota….ha stupid me…the government was running the show. Why do I feel like they’re going to just lower the quotas and further limit what’s available thinking this will be the way to manage the ‘addictions’…maybe because that’s the way government’s done things in the past….make things worse…Remember Ronald Reagan’s statement: “The most terrifying words in the English language are I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” They’ve already done more than enough damage thank you very much
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They’re going to wait until April to address medication shortages in hospitals? What will the problems look like a month from now? Do politicians think these shortages won’t affect them? (Well, they’re probably right on that one.)
Amen to that!!!!!
Since they want to limit what people can get, maybe they will develop a continous pain problem and will need the very thing that they have helped restrict. We would then see different legislation!!!