This appeared in the Federal Register .. the DEA response to comments on the rescheduling of Hydrocodone products. The previously statements of DEA spokesperson about how the DEA will not interfere with legit pts getting their needs therapy – IMO – seems to be inconsistent with this current response.
8. Responsibilities of Pharmacists
The DEA received many comments, from pharmacists, physicians, ultimate users, and the general public, who were concerned that the increased administrative burden on pharmacists that might occur as a result of moving HCPs into schedule II would cause pharmacists to devote time to the administrative burdens rather than on patient counseling and safety. Commenters stated that the administrative burden would be greatly increased in the pharmacy setting because: separate prescriptions would have to be entered for every HCP; pharmacists would have to count the prescriptions, as technicians are not legally allowed to do so in some States; inventories would be required of all HCPs; and increased workload associated with recordkeeping requirements (i.e., DEA Form 222).
DEA response: The processes and procedures associated with dispensing a controlled substance are not relevant factors to the determination of whether a substance should be controlled or under what schedule a substance should be placed if it is controlled. See 21 U.S.C. 811 and 812.”
We have a agency.. in fact two agencies working together – DEA & FDA .. and is making criminals out of people with mental healths issues that are self medicating their demons by abusing some substance, discouraging healthcare professionals from providing optimum treatment to those with subjective diseases and interfering with how healthcare professional practice medicine. All of these people could represent 125 – 150 million of our population…
There are some 11 K – 12 K people working for the DEA at the Federal level and they are the ones that are manipulating the lives of all of these people. A recent survey indicated that 90% of the people in this country believes that the war on drugs is a failure. Apparently the 10% that believe it is successful are those that derive their paycheck from this war in one way or another.
It is claimed that we spend 51 BILLION dollars annually on fighting this war and have spent over ONE TRILLION since the war officially began in 1970 with creation of the BNDD.
Today we have 535 people that control the continued funding of this war.. 435 in the House of Representatives and 100 in the Senate.
There are abt 200 million eligible to vote in this country and about 120 million will vote in the next Presidential election… and elections are usually decided by a 1%-2% difference.. that means that 2.4 million will decide not only the next President but 435 in the House and 33-34 in the Senate. That is just 2% of the people whose lives are being adversely affected by the DEA.
After this next election.. is it time .. to work with politicians that will commit to DEFUND THE DEA and the war on drugs ? The first one to commit gets the support of those opposed to continuing the war on drugs… You cut the head off of the snake…it will die.. You don’t cut the head of the snake off.. it may eventually kill you.
Filed under: General Problems
Thank you for your honest breakdown of the facts. I would love to see each one drug tested. How could or rather why should people be punished for having a painful disease? Please stop the punishing of patients and the doctors that help. Please.
Starting NOW patients need to be told to persistently bug all of their federal reps before and after the elections especially if they are veterans. Get out and vote!!!
So of all those people that work at the DEA, I find it hard to believe not one has a family member wirh chronic pain issues that is experiencing what our patients are experiencing with access, discrimination, and attitudes towards proper treatment
My favorite part is “the policies and procedures are not relevant”. This brings to mind the attitude of a certain chain whose policy is “we don’t care how you do it, just do it.” I am so old that I recall that this was tried in our state about 15 years ago and it lasted about 2 months. It was particularly difficult for dental patients because prescribers could not call in for a dozen Vicodin after a tooth extraction. Seems that in this day and age, not much is relevant to corporations (except the stock price) , boards of pharmacy or anyone else for that matter.
Read #3 patient access…as we all have been saying and the DEA and HHS have been denying over and over…..they really DONT CARE ABOUT THE PATIENTS as I interpreted the end of that section. And the section regarding abuse ( I forget the number now) it seems they really believe by closer monitoring of hydrocodone products that the use of heroin will decrease because the young people who abuse HCP the most wont have as much access to HCP…..if I interpreted that correctly. their whole reponse was WE DONT CARE ABOUT PATIENTS WE’RE GOING TO DO IT CAUSE WE CAN
Cant argue with that