DEA vows to stop pain med abuse, not prescribing

The agency said it does not want to keep physicians from getting OxyContin to patients who need it.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Nov. 19, 2001.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and 21 health organizations said they will work to ensure that patients with chronic pain can get OxyContin (oxycodone hydrochloride).

The DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said the agency would continue to fight abuse of the painkiller while trying not to discourage physicians from prescribing it.

At an Oct. 23 news conference, the DEA issued a joint statement with the American Medical Association, the American Pain Foundation, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Pharmaceutical Assn. and Last Acts.

"It is a statement calling for balance," said Karen Orloff Kaplan, national program director of Last Acts, a coalition working to improve end-of-life care.

Leaders are focusing attention on the time-released painkiller OxyContin, which has become an illicit street drug that users crush and snort or dissolve and inject to get a powerful high. A recent review by the DEA of autopsy data found OxyContin suspected in 282 overdose deaths during a 19-month span.

Some doctors have scaled back writing prescriptions of OxyContin for fear of being targets of lawsuits or DEA investigations. But health organizations said the DEA's involvement in the joint statement should tell physicians not to worry about DEA scrutiny. [...]