Focus on stopping diversion: Federal officials announce crackdown on illegal use of prescription painkillers

Physicians are concerned that new safeguards could limit appropriate use of pain medications.

By Markian Hawryluk, AMNews staff. March 15, 2004.

Washington -- For the first time, the federal government is directing its fight against illegal drug use toward the abuse of legal drugs.

The Bush administration's top drug enforcement officials announced in early March a coordinated effort to confront the rapidly growing practice of diverting prescription drugs for illicit use. But it has left physicians and patient advocates concerned that the net cast upon illegal drug use could stifle appropriate treatment as well.

"The nonmedical use of prescription drugs has become an increasingly widespread and serious problem in this country, one that calls for immediate action," said Drug Czar John Walters. "The federal government is embarking on a comprehensive effort to ensure that potentially addictive medications are dispensed and used safely and effectively."

The National Drug Control Strategy will include greater scrutiny of labeling and marketing of opiate drug products, wider dissemination of educational materials for doctors regarding appropriate pain management, and a crackdown on Internet pharmacies that provide controlled substances illegally.

"This represents a somewhat new kind of threat," Walters said. "These drugs are legal, they have legitimate medical uses that need to be preserved, and they [sometimes leave] people to think they are safer and not subject to abuse. But they are."

Nonmedical use of prescription drugs now ranks second only to marijuana use as the most common abuse of drugs in the United States.