The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending tighter restrictions on the sale and use of pharmaceutical products(medicines) that contain the opioid painkiller HYDROCODONE as an ingredient.
Until this recent decision by the FDA, drugs such as painkiller Vicodin and other "products" that contain less than 15 milligrams of hydrocodone have been classified as Schedule III controlled substances. The FDA now recommends reclassifying these drugs more restrictively --- potentially as Schedule II products, in line with opioid painkillers such as oxycodone and morphine.
The result is that these products are becoming more difficult to obtain, both by addicts and by legitimate doctor-prescribed patients. Physicians are no longer allowed to call in a prescription for a Schedule II "product" to a pharmacy; patients must submit a written prescription.
Additionally, patients will not be allowed as many refills before returning to see their doctors, potentially representing a hardship for patients in chronic pain.
These recommendations are supported by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
[www.charlesjeromeware.com; The Washington Post, Friday, October 25th,2013,page A2]
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