Sessions to DEA: Evaluate opioid production quota
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/376335-sessions-to-dea-evaluate-opioid-production-quota
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to evaluate whether changes are needed to the amount of opioids drug makers are allowed to produce.
If needed, potential alterations could be made through an interim final rule, which allows an agency to issue a new regulation effective immediately without first going through the notice and comment period.
In Sessions’s memo to the DEA, he noted that studies have indicated the U.S. is an outlier compared to other countries in how many opioid prescriptions are given out each year.
Every year, the DEA sets the production and manufacturing quotas for Schedule I and II controlled substances.
“Given the urgency of this crisis, with an estimated 175 Americans dying per day, we need the DEA to act quickly to determine if changes are needed in the quotas,” Sessions wrote in the memo.
In July, 15 Democratic senators and Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) sent a letter to then-acting DEA administrator Chuck Rosenberg, asking him to reduce the opioid quotas for 2018. They noted that between 1993 and 2015, the DEA approved a 39-fold increase of oxycodone, 12-fold increase of hydrocodone and a 25-fold increase of fentanyl.
They praised the DEA’s decision to decrease nearly all opioid production quotas by 25 percent or more for 2017, but wrote that “however, the 2017 production quota levels for numerous Schedule II opioids remain dramatically higher than they were a decade ago.”
In December, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) filed a lawsuit against the DEA challenging the production quotas for 2018 and seeking more transparency and input in the process.
The filing deadline for initial submissions had been extended twice, and was set for March 1. In light of Sessions’s announcement, Morrisey put the lawsuit on hold while the DEA evaluates the quotas.
“I heartily applaud Attorney General Sessions for the major step he is taking and for his continued collaboration with our office to protect West Virginians from this deadly scourge of opioid excess,” Morrisey — who is running for the Senate — said at a press conference. He didn’t make his lawsuit public at the time, discussing it for the first time publicly on Thursday.
The opioid epidemic has hit both urban and rural areas all across the country and shows no sign of abating.
Opioid overdose deaths increased nearly 28 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Opiate Rxs are at a 10 yr low… OD’s up 50% over 10 yrs… Does this suggest that AG Session needs to find out a way to curtail ILLEGAL OPIATES FLOODING INTO THE COUNTY ?
Filed under: General Problems
Expecting Jeff Sessions to actually do his job is like expecting a leopard to change his spots! While watching the opioid summit I didn’t hear one word about the effect of this witch hunt on people in pain! I didn’t hear one comment from someone who is in chronic pain only the tearful stories from people who had lost loved ones from taking drugs not prescribed for them! Funny how when the toxicology reports come out there are illegal substances found and even “legal”drugs were not prescribed for the deceased! Sadly we can write letters and make calls, even talk to everyone we meet, but it only gets worse for everyone! They can’t even see or admit that what they’ve done isn’t working because it doesn’t fit their agenda and fill their pockets as well as those of their cronies!! It also doesn’t serve to kill off the vulnerable people which is also part of their plan. I wonder just who is going to financially support all the leaches in both public and private sectors when everyone else is gone?
And once again, the drug cartels and dealers are thanking our federal government. Business will continue to boom within the black market. Addiction and chronic pain are most definitely two separate issues, however, both have one thing in common – they can cause the most upstanding law abiding citizen to become desperate for relief.
Ok,,,BINGO ,,Mr.Areins,,,,,all under the color of law,,,,Its called corruption,abuse of power,abuse of public trust,lieing to the public,all under the color of law,,,which again,,,is illegal,,,,but if our judges are also corrupted,,,then what???maryw
pssss,,and obviously our public comments of the truth,,,what is really happening out here,,,not what some politician is bullshitten the public with,,,but obviously our public comments are hitten a nerve,,,GOOD,,, lets keep-em up,,,maryw
Steve. In your opinion. Why is the message not being heard. Or possibly a better imagery is, Why is the message that RX opioids are dramatically lower, yet Opioid deaths have dramatically increased!
Why is this message not being heard. And why is it not being promoted in the mainstream media..It is a glaring distinction!!!
What is the conversation that you are hearing among your colleagues on this.
Acknowledgement of this fact, would immediately start putting the opioid hysteria in the correct might and stop the wholesale assault on doctors and Chronically Ill Patients now looking to be bearded into Billion dollar funded Addiction treatment centers..Probably already owned in large part by many of the lawmakers pushing these archaic reductions in opioid dosages for intractable Chronic Pain patients.
I look forward to your thoughts.
It seems someone in the medical community would be screaming this news at the top of their lungs.
But there is no debate how Opioid deaths have continued to dramatically rise, while RX Opioids have dramatically been reduced!!!
what I am seeing – hearing… is that the DEA agents who sit at desks – tells the public one thing and those agents out in the field tell healthcare professionals just the opposite. The DEA is losing their “cash cow” MJ.. 30 states have legalized it in some ways. There is some evidence out there that the DEA is doing estimates of a doc’s net worth and that is who they target to bust the practice… they claim that they only go after the top prescribers.. but after they take out the top prescriber.. the second place prescriber becomes the top prescriber… the pharmacies… they are going after the chains and fabricate reason to fine the crap out of them mostly from administrative errors.. the independent pharmacies … they just shut down.. because they don’t have the assets like the chains… From what I have seen, the DEA is determining what is or is not medical necessary medical necessary prescribing almost exclusive from data mining of the PMP databases and shipment reports from the wholesalers. AG Session, recently stated that he wants to go back to pre-Obama era and go full steam ahead on civil asset forfeitures… where historically 85% of the people that get their assets seized/confiscated are NEVER CHARGED and seldom get their assets back… because the assets themselves are considered the “guilty party”… so how does a inanimate asset defend itself in the courts ? Often the prosecutor attorney is the one who has seized the assets and that is the authority that rules on it being returned to its owner. AG Session also stated that he wants those who are abusing substances – are CRIMINALS and set to jail/prison.. this is from a judicial decision in 1917 that opiate addiction is a crime and not a disease. They have been changing the nomenclature that anyone taking a opiate > 90 days ( legally or illegally) is suffering from “opiate use disorder”… the new term for ADDICT and no more accidental OD… anyone dying with any opiate showing in toxicology their death will be determined ‘opiate related death”… so they can be counted in all the opiate deaths – think the old OD’s. IMO… they are using new interpretations of existing laws and new guidelines and regulations to go after all those people are suffering from a opiate use disorder.. because according to them.. anyone getting a opiate for > 7 days.. will end up addicted… buying Heroin and end up ODing.. so if they can stop the flow of legal opiates … they will stop all the OD’s.. except they are ignoring that legal opiate Rxs are declining and OD’s – with 4-6 different substances in toxicology and up to 99% being illegal substances. Just look at the toxicology of Eric Bolling toxicology… as a typical OD multi-substance toxicity. It appears to be safer and more profitable to go after prescribers and other healthcare professional… going after illegal dealers… there is no value to the DEA from seizing their illegal drugs.. probably they lose money… time they seize the product – and risk of being shot at – then they have the cost of inventory the product seized, storing the illegal product and then the cost of destroying the illegal product.
This is called,”When any form of government EVINCES BY DESIGN, to reduce its citizens to absolute despotism, it is our duty to alter or abolish it,”[doi],,,jmo Excellent,truthful explanation of what is happening to us,,,and they are also breaking the law by doing all of this ,”under the color of law,” which in itself is against the law,,,How do we stop it,,,we get someone w/a hell of a lot of money,,,do a prime time slot,,,like sunday night at 7 pm,,,on at least 1 big channel,,,then re-run it again and again,,,,and WE NEED A LAWSUIT,, to argue the truth of all the laws they have broken,,and have that court session on at least 1 major media network,,,like O.J,,,and Andrew klowndyn in jail,,for corrupting the field of medicine for financial gains and literally killing people,jmo,,,maryw,