Hydrocodone found in Painkillers

“DEA Tightens Controls on Hydrocodone Painkiller Drugs”

By: Lisa Girion

Source: LA Times

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/621/article/p2p-81149800/  

    U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has decided to put strict policies on the most popular narcotic painkiller, which has caused problems with addictions, overdose, and even death. A narcotic is a depressant that causes addiction, relieves pain, induces sleep, and causes sedation. The DEA published a rule on Friday that hydrocodone products such as Vicodin and Norco will be categorized with other commonly abused medications. In forty-five days all the medications that include hydrocodones will be treated as Schedule II drugs. Patients need to follow new restrictions in order to have access to these painkillers. Pharmacists now by law need to follow strict rules in handling and storing these drugs. According to the International Narcotics Control Board, the U.S. consumes ninety-nine percent of the hydrocodones in the world. Annually these narcotic painkillers have caused sixteen thousand deaths. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that more drug deaths have happened than car crash deaths. The Los Angeles Times did an analysis of prescription-drug fatalities in Southern California and concluded that 945 of the deaths had to deal with prescribed medication. Doctors these days have prescribed painkillers that contain hydrocodone and acetaminophen (a substance that relieves headache and high fever). Drug enforcements have complained that hydrocodone has been widely violated. The DEA is trying their hardest to make the painkillers more difficult for patients to purchase. Governor Jerry Brown has signed two bills for this investigation. They have to do with prescribing these painkillers recklessly. Proposition 46 will be offered to California voters in November stating that doctors will check a drug monitoring program that is called CURES before prescribing medication to a patient.

   This article is important because we have found out what is actually put in the painkillers. These painkillers have caused a lot of problems and need to be fixed. The DEA is trying to do everything to stop this because of the addictive drug that is in the painkillers. This is important because many people consume painkillers from time to time and to have an addictive drug as a major substance will cause many problems. That substance needs to be changed because it is unhealthy for patients to consume.