DEA and FDA have been unable to move on a citizen’s petition filed in 1999 that would reschedule hydrocodone products to C-II, something that both agencies publicly are on record stating should be done. The recent move by Senator Joe Manchin of WV to accomplish this via a legislative amendment seems to have fallen to the lobbying efforts of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association. The reasons stated by these lobbyists, according to Dr. Kolodny of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, are “totally bogus.”
There are 21 registered sponsors of hydrocodone products, including some of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world. In 2004, retail sales of hydrocodone/APAP amounted to $93,680,000. Seven years later, in 2010, sales of this formulation of hydrocodone amounted to $1,905,254,710. This was an increase of 1,933.8 percent (yes, 1,933.8%) or more than a 20-fold increase in sales revenue in just 7 years. Sure beats investing in Government bonds!
Between 2004 and 2009, hospital emergency department visits for drug abuse-related emergencies involving hydrocodone increased 116.5 percent (from 39,844 in 2004 to 86,258 in 2009). According to the CDC, “During 1999–2008, overdose death rates, sales, and substance abuse treatment admissions related to OPR [opioid pain relievers] all increased substantially…. Prominent among these prescription drug–related deaths and ED visits are … drugs that includes oxycodone, methadone, and hydrocodone, among others.”
(Ref: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6043a4.htm?s_cid=mm6043a4_w)
John Coleman
President
Drug Watch International
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