DEA and senators propose bill to cut opioid manufacturing by 20% in 2018

https://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2017/hq080417.shtml

AUG 04 (WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing a reduction for controlled substances that may be manufactured in the U.S. next year by 20 percent as compared to 2017, per the proposed notice being published in the Federal Register on August 7, 2017 and available for public inspection today.

The DEA has proposed to reduce more commonly prescribed schedule II opioid painkillers, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, morphine, codeine, meperidine and fentanyl. Demand for these opioid medicines has dropped, according to sales data obtained by DEA from IMS Health, a company that provides insurance companies with data on prescriptions written and prescription medications sold in America.
“Physicians, pharmacists, and patients must recognize the inherent risks of these powerful medications, especially for long-term use,” said Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg. “More states are mandating use of prescription drug monitoring programs, which is good, and that has prompted a decrease in opioid prescriptions.”

The Proposed Aggregate Production Quotas (APQ) for Schedule I and II controlled substances that is being published in the Federal Register reflects the total amount of controlled substances needed to meet the country’s legitimate medical, scientific, research, industrial, and export needs for the year and for the maintenance of reserve stocks.
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines to practitioners recommending a reduction in prescribing opioid medications for chronic pain. DEA and its federal partners have increased efforts in the last several years to educate practitioners, pharmacists, manufacturers, and the public about the dangers associated with the misuse of opioid medications and the importance of properly prescribing.



When Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, the quota system was intended to reduce or eliminate diversion from “legitimate channels of trade” by controlling the quantities of the basic ingredients needed for the manufacture of controlled substances. The purpose of quotas is to provide for an adequate and uninterrupted supply for legitimate medical need of schedule I and schedule II controlled substances, which have a high potential for abuse, while limiting the amounts available to prevent diversion.
DEA must balance the production of what is needed for legitimate use against the production of an excessive amount of these potentially harmful substances. DEA establishes an APQ for more than 250 schedule I and II controlled substances annually.
In setting the APQ, DEA considers data from many sources, including estimates of the legitimate medical need from the Food and Drug Administration; estimates of retail consumption based on prescriptions dispensed; manufacturers’ disposition history and forecasts; data from DEA’s own internal system for tracking controlled substance transactions; and past quota histories.

Once the aggregate quota is set, DEA allocates individual manufacturing and procurement quotas to those manufacturers that apply for them. DEA may revise a company’s quota at any time during the year if change is warranted due to increased sales or exports; new manufacturers entering the market; new product development; or product recalls.

The proposed cut is based on data from a company that acts on behalf of insurance companies (which of course what to pay for less medication), no bias there at all. No legitimate medical or scientific science to back the proposal though. Just biased insurance companies.


In other news the cartels and china will increase opioid manufacturing to fill the gap and demand. More deaths and ODs. DEA fails again at curbing opioid problem.

They are transitioning to only terminally ill patients being able to get opiates. If you go to the emergency room or doctor now it is a joke. My significant other shattered bones in both their legs and feet and was in horrific pain. Despite x-rays and being in tears it was an ordeal just to get sent home with 10 vicodin. Every doctor that they visited past this has declined to prescribe anything, not even muscle relaxers. They are telling people to take Ibuprofen and Tylenol for everything.

Then they are going to be surprised when fentanyl death rates shoot up significantly.

Are you serious about your SO? That's absurd

It's getting difficult to obtain them, yeah. I have been in severe, psychologically harmful, breakthrough pain for over a month. It took 4 appointments with my doctor to convince him to prescribe me the lowest dose of oral morphine and dilaudid, and I basically had to scream and then faint in front of him due to pain.

Under the WHO, pain relief is a human right. Cutting the supply of accessible medication will only turn desperate people to the black market. I told my doctor that if he didn't give me the Rx, then I would buy fentanyl off the street, or start abusing ketamine. I had to threaten him with my own self-harm to get the medicine I needed. The fentanyl crisis here where I live is so bad that it would take me less time to walk up the street and buy some than to keep arguing with my doctor. The major difference of course is that I don't want to accidentally OD.

China is laughing. The DEA is creating the perfect situation for the black market to step in, which is what their secret mandate is anyway. Always believed that. Almost everything the DEA does increases public harm and the incarceration rate.

Dont even think that mandate is all that secret. Most dont complain when the DEA takes down gangs and cartels and no one will remember or even know they lowered the legit opioid production quotas. Its a win-win for those fuckers.

I've noticed this trend in recent years, I mean you'd have to be a blithering fucking idiot to not notice what is going on.

Everything was much better when everyone could just go to their pill guy and get fucking 30s. Now people are dying left and right and H is everywhere.

I'm glad opiates aren't my thing but FUCK this is just getting more and more ridiculous.

They clearly want people to die, doesn't it seem like?

Yes they do...more reason to ask for funding to fight the drug war.

The public has zero awareness as to the nuances of chronic pain and pill availability and the interplay between heroin/fent availability.

To the public "shutting down pill Mills" and taking pills off the streets sounds like it will end the heroin crisis...and such things make great low hanging sound bite for politicians.

Pain patients stand no chance of survival. Nor do heroin users with fentanyl.

The only ppl making money and success are both the DEA and cartel and China...Americans lose

This is insane.
There has got to be a better way to manage this bullshit....there just HAS to be.
In fact there is, but nobody in the position to do so actually wants this fixed.

The DEA gets paid to chase ghosts, so they sure as shit won't be the champions of progress for the American people....hell this "war on drugs" could go on to infinity, & if it does....well they'll keep getting paid as long as we taxpayers keep allowing it!

I read a lot of current news articles about chronic pain, opiates, patients, & the future of said topics.
I find it somewhat disturbing that one increasingly common theme when these morons write about all of this, is the unashamed promotion of BUPE as the first line treatment for chronic pain....I mean, if I didn't know better than to assume people are greedy, I would SWEAR these cocksuckers must be getting kickbacks from manufacturers of Buprenorphine products!

No....I'm sure that's not it.
I just can't imagine what medical professionals of sound mind & ethics would Rx bupe as a FIRST line medication for chronic pain.
Certainly it would work for some, but Christsake, pain patients aren't a goddamn monolith.
Do doctors still take a Hipppcratic Oath?
Did the DEA force them to update it to a "Hypocritical Oath"?
I suppose the latter would certainly be apropos for 2017 & I'll be fucking stunned....STUNNED if pain patients aren't all forcibly euthanized by this time in 2018!!

Sickening....never thought the land of the free & home of the brave would end up turning into the land of the Maoist drug-control policies, & home of the plague of chronic pain!

Ahh...oh well. Nothing matters....nothing at all.

P.S. Hey DEA, prepare yourselves for the uprising of drunks!
Lol you morons think dope heads are difficult!!!
But it's okay because booze is legal & OTC.

Only thing to stop most pain-patients from drinking themselves through the windshield of you're cruiser at 110 mph is....you guessed it....death.
Oh wait, and opioids!!?
For now?????????????????
Yeah....now 4 people need opioids for pain, because the 1st one couldn't have them & had to drink instead, and blew thru a crosswalk, maiming 3 laypersons.
Now 4 people need opioids!
Backwards moron shitheads just bring out the smart-ass in me lol.
And memes....they do that too....I should take ??????, it's getting late....

P.s.s. In a perfect world, 1 ? Could do the work of 7!
But noooooo, we can't have that....give ppl weak pills & of course they take em by the fistful, ya bright, smart, brilliantly dumb sons-a-bitches!
God almighty that's my rant for 2017!? Mmmmmm.....doughnut.

^^^^^^
Lol, great post Treefa.

Um, yeah. It's just a big racket but there is so much money in it, all of it, with anything to do with drugs, that I doubt it would change.

Of course a lot of us should be mindful that (as users or ex-users, whatever.) We really have an unnecessary emotional investment into this entire subject. Ok, I mean speaking for myself I know I do. And yes, pain meds utilized as STRICTLY pain meds for truly suffering people is an important distinction but I still stress that sometimes (as addicts, what have you) we are quick to become emotional over the whole thing MUCH moreso than your average Joe.

Just saying. Keep it in perspective.

But no, if our leaders and law enforcement really truly wanted the addicts to get better decriminalization is the only logical route.

Let me ask you all....if all drugs became legal tomorrow, would you even want to do them anymore? It sure would take a lot of the thrill away, don't you think?

Just take my entire post as food for thought.

Man, this is fucked up.
Politicians need to keep their noses out of medicine - except, of course, in making it more accessible for their constituents.

Seems like a terrible time to be American if you're sick or in pain.

Foreigner said:

It's getting difficult to obtain them, yeah. I have been in severe, psychologically harmful, breakthrough pain for over a month. It took 4 appointments with my doctor to convince him to prescribe me the lowest dose of oral morphine and dilaudid, and I basically had to scream and then faint in front of him due to pain.

Click to expand...

That is fucking horrendous.
The barbarism of refusing pain relief to people who need it is another horrendous side-effect of drug prohibition.

I'm so sorry to hear you've been going through this, on top of all of your other health problems.

Foreigner said:

The DEA is creating the perfect situation for the black market to step in, which is what their secret mandate is anyway. Always believed that. Almost everything the DEA does increases public harm and the incarceration rate.

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Absolutely.
This is one of the many flow-on effects of the prison industrial complex. This system was not created to help people, but to profit from their misery.

...and in a world where people still even at this point in his presidency support trump....you can bet that the nuances of chronic pain and opiates are far to complex for ppl to grasp, so in other words, the DEA will win.


There is a new DEA director that just took power, I'm sure he will want to make a big fuss to try and show off, expect more bullshit

Ozekat said:

Let me ask you all....if all drugs became legal tomorrow, would you even want to do them anymore? It sure would take a lot of the thrill away, don't you think?

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Err, yes? I do drugs for the primary effects, not because of social aspects. I prefer my drugs legal and don't care (and actually hate) the "drug game". That's why I opt for research chemicals most of the time. I don't understand how some think that people do drugs simply because they're illegal. Most drug users aren't rebellious 13-year olds.

^yeah I found that statement stupid as well. I didn't think anyone did drugs to "be cool" unless they were a high schooler or in a cheesy anti drug film.

I think it would take some of the thrill associated with trying something that is taboo. But that really only applies to those trying or thinking about trying and sustaining a new habit.

I think any responsible, self aware drug user such as a lot of us on BL prefer drugs 1) legally regulated, 2) of easily quantified or of accurate dosages, 3) pure or as advertised, 4) and preferably not extremely potent.

Well , hell, at least my post elicited some honest responses.

For the record I just fucking love drugs too....I doubt if they were all decriminalized I would stop wanting to use. But it makes for some very interesting conversation.

And really, if they were all legalized and you still wanted to use how does that make one any more or less mature?

By the mere fact of their status in the legal spectrum becoming (theoretically) altered, how can you even say how you respond.

Illegal things have novelty to them because they aren't allowed.....

I digress. It makes for damn good conversation.

^ i would probably do them more because i wouldn't be worried about ruining my life by getting caught and they would be available much more easily

Should be interesting to watch heroin's market value....I would think a sharp rise (due to rise in demand) followed by a sharp decline (due to rise in production to meet that demand and the ensuing sales)....but perhaps someone more knowledgeable on stocks/markets could better enlighten me?

Maybe even more interesting should be the market value for poppy/opium and the ensuing events...

Regardless, this is certain to severely impact the world in more ways than could be imagined- a shaping event in fact.

-PA

Man I can remember back in 96 when oxy came out and it was everywhere and dirt cheap. It was so easy to get it if you had a minor injury. And if you lived in Fla at the time you could just basically ask for it there were so many pill Mills lol
Really sucks for the ppl that need them...

Yes it would be nice to not have to constantly worry and hide your drug use from society.

Sometimes a part of me really really would just love to move somewhere where drug use has either been totally decriminalized or at the least they don't treat users like total garbage and even help you provide a safe, neutral place to get high like they do in Canada I believe for H users.