Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) called on DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart on Wednesday to reschedule hydrocodone combination drugs to help curb addiction.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recommended that prescription painkillers containing hydrocodone be reclassified as a schedule II drug, making them more difficult to obtain.
Leonhart needs to initiate the rulemaking process to reclassify the drug.
“While rescheduling hydrocodone combination drugs alone is not enough to end our nation’s prescription drug problem, regulating these potent narcotics in an appropriate manner will go a long way toward combating a national epidemic,” Buchanan said. “It has reached such violent proportions that fatal drug overdoses now outweigh the total number of traffic fatalities in this country.”
Buchanan introduced the bipartisan Safe Prescribing Act in March 2013. The measure would reclassify combination hydrocodone drugs. Under the reclassification, pharmacists would require an original prescription from a patient for refills and traffickers would face harsher fines and penalties.
“Too many of our loved ones are dying every day from prescription drug overdoses and are abusing hydrocodone painkillers for non-medical purposes,” Buchanan said.
Buchanan said prescription drug abuse will worsen if left unchecked, and he urged Leonhart to sign off on the reclassification so the rulemaking process can begin.