DEA, FDA discuss prescription problems at U.S. Senate hearing
http://www.wesh.com/health/dea-fda-discuss-prescription-problems-at-us-senate-hearing/32876832 VIDEO ON WEBSITE
The U.S. Senate took up the issue of patients with legitimate scrips for medicine being denied prescriptions at the pharmacy counter.
“I am immensely proud of the DEA work that I saw,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and its work to curb drug abuse and illegal activities were met with a measure of praise at Wednesday’s Senate hearing.
“I think that the DEA, as an investigative agency, has really done some wonderful things and many of its agents have done truly heroic things and I’ve had the privilege of seeing that first hand,” Whitehouse said.
“If it wants to continue with these authorities and anything like the same kind of administrative set-up that it has now, (it needs) to sit down and have a real internal come-to-Jesus session and think about what is going on over there,” Whitehouse said.
The blame for issues that Florida patients face falls on the doorsteps of many entities.
Senators heard Wednesday that there hasn’t been a drug shortage in the U.S. in four years, meaning that when patients are told their medications are not available DEA quotas are not the issue.
Special Section: State of Pain
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration believes individual instances of pharmacists not filling prescriptions is an issue that has to be dealt with at the state level.
“What we understand is that some pharmacies are making decisions not to fill prescriptions, for various reasons, so some pharmacies may be making business decisions, they may be making decisions about what prescriptions to fill. That’s something that’s more managed by the state’s board of pharmacy,” FDA Capt. Valerie Jensen said.
After WESH 2 brought the investigation to Florida’s Board of Pharmacy, it formed a special committee called the Controlled Substances Standard Committee.
The committee is holding its first meeting next month. The group is set to address issues of pharmacists who will not fill legitimate prescriptions and figure out how to better protect Florida’s ailing.
The DEA continued to claim Wednesday that pharmacists who refuse to fill real prescriptions are not doing their jobs.
Filed under: General Problems
cvs told me about the zipcode ristriction eve3n though i’m an 8 nyear customer
Pharmacists came forward to report DEA agents coming into their pharmacy and telling them not to fill for Rx out of their zip code, for certain medicines and strengths, and certain doctors. I guess they all just had very active imaginations [?] It doesn’t seem like they would have much if anything to gain except increasing scrutiny.
Regulating AND enforcing have too much of a conflict of interest. They need to pass legislation that limits DEA to just enforcement. It is beyond obvious they know or care little about the medical/health system. They need to assign an agency that is rooted in health care to manage the quota system.
*I know this is wishful thinking but I truly think the DEA should be totally de-funded . They are a relic of a by gone era where myth and morality were the foundations of decisions. We have science now and compassion (unless stifled by fear) I’m so sick of hearing all the BS about protecting society, where the heck were they all those years when the pill mills were operating full force. They had to know. If junkies from as far away as Kentucky and Maryland knew about it CERTAINLY the DEA knew, its their JOB to know these things. Ridiculous.