DEA considers rescheduling Hydrocodone
August 21, 2007
The DEA is considering moving hydrocodone from Schedule III to Schedule II in hopes of better controlling diversion and misuse.
Hydrocodone-based drugs like Vicodin and Lortab have become the most popular opiate-based painkillers in America. 124 million prescriptions for the drugs were written in 2005, with prescriptions rapidly increasing. Doctors who were scared off by the problems associated with OxyContin switched their patients to hydrocodone.
Some observers say the looser restrictions on the Schedule III drug, more specifically regarding refills where allowed by state law, have made hydrocodone products a target for abuse.
Legal distribution of the drugs has risen 66 percent since 2001, but hydrocodone also has become the most common pharmaceutical submitted into evidence to forensic labs and the most likely to result in an emergency-room visit.
The DEA considered this once before in 2004, but the drug remains a Schedule III.
Pharmacists and Doctors would inevitably have increased liability if hydrocodones are rescheduled. Share your thoughts in the Comments or our Forum.
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2 Responses to “DEA considers rescheduling Hydrocodone”
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I think that changing the class of hydrocodone to CII will do very little. The doctors in AZ prescribe Percocet like it is going out of style so I don’t think simply changing the class will have much effect. We need to address the problem at the level of doctors. I mostly see Rxs coming from ERs. There needs to be a system in place that can track patients who hop from ER to ER just getting controls. We as pharmacists can only do so much.
I feel the rescheduling would be a good thing. Yes people are going to shop for drugs, but this will do a lot to shut down forgeries for call in rx’s. Everyday I walk in to see at least 3 or 4 more faxes from fax net for people calling their own scripts in for some sort of hydrocodone/acetaminophen combo. This would pretty much eliminate that.