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DEA Calls For Huge Cut In Opioid Production Due To Ongoing Epidemic

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Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
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Plans to reduce the manufacturing of opioids by 25 percent in 2017 are underway, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Tuesday, citing a shrinking market and the epidemic of abuse as central reasons.

Opioid is the name of a general category of pain medicine that includes more well-known drugs like codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and fentanyl, among many others.

“Demand for these opioid medicines, represented by prescriptions written by DEA-registered practitioners, has decreased according to sales data,” the agency said in a news release.

An official survey “released last month found 6.5 million Americans over the age of 12 used controlled prescription medicines non-medically during the past month, second only to marijuana and more than past-month users of cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogens combined.”

Sales of prescription opioids in the U.S. almost quadrupled from 1999 to 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is estimated that 20 percent of patients with non-cancer pain are prescribed opioids.

The DEA is toning down the allowed quota because doctors are simply reducing the prescription of opioids due to the reduction in demand, according to IMS Health data referenced by the DEA.

The declining demand is all despite the fact that pharmaceutical companies and advocacy groups spent $880 million on campaign contributions and lobbying initiatives from 2006 through 2015, according to the Associated Press and Center for Public Integrity. This is eight times more than what the gun lobbying industry spent, and 200 times more than advocates for more stringent policies expended during the same time period.

“Earlier this year the CDC issued guidelines to practitioners recommending a reduction in prescribing opioid medications for chronic pain,” the release reads. “For years, DEA and others have been educating practitioners, pharmacists, manufacturers, and the public about the potential dangers of the misuse of opioid medications.”

The DEA’s change in plans is not the only example of federal policymakers altering strategy. (RELATED: The Drug That Reverses Heroin Overdoses Is Doled Out For Free In Baltimore)

Michael Botticelli, the director of the White House Office Of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), is proposing innovative and unusual initiatives in response to the epidemic, including an increase in clean syringe distribution projects.

Opioids are chemically similar to heroin. “The incidence of heroin initiation was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical pain reliever use than among those who did not,” the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports.

Over-prescribing opioids leads to a higher chance of heroin abuse. And heroin is now being laced with elephant tranquilizer.

The confluence of factors led to a series of tragic events across the country, including one where four young children were left at home with their dead parents for at least a day or two and another where two parents were pictured passed out in their car with their child in the backseat just sitting there.

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