Posted by garnet71 on May 30, 2009, at 0:40:04
In reply to Re: Need an alternative to Abilify » garnet71, posted by jerrypharmstudent on May 29, 2009, at 23:56:12
They really seem to be focusing on vicodin.
On one web page, the DEA said they are taking action due to the proliferation of prescription drugs to non-patients, yet on another, they say there is no "crackdown" on physicians.
I'd def. check your state laws though to see if something has recently changed. That might explain your doctors recent behavior. I even feel bad for them they have to deal with this. Of course I feel bad for us, too.
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http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/fed_regs/notices/2006/fr09062.htm
Another source of data presented by SAMHSA is that collected by the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), which provides national estimates of drug related visits to hospital emergency departments. According to DAWN, for 2004:
Nearly 1.3 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2004 were associated with drug misuse/abuse. Nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals was involved in nearly half a million of these ED visits.
Opiates/opioid analgesics (pain killers), such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and methadone, and benzodiazepines, such as alprazolam and clonazepam, were present in more than 100,000 ED visits associated with nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals in 2004.\5\
A measure of the problem among young people is the 2005 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey conducted by the University of Michigan.\6\ The MTF survey is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and measures drug abuse among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. NIDA stated: "While the 2005 survey showed a continuing general decline in drug use, there are continued high rates of non-medical use of prescription medications, especially opioid pain killers. For example, in 2005, 9.5 percent of 12th graders reported using Vicodin in the past year, and 5.5 percent of these students reported using OxyContin in the past year.'' \7\ In announcing the latest MTF survey results, NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni said that "the upward trend in prescription drug abuse is disturbing.'' \8\
DEA also wishes to dispel the mistaken notion among a small number of medical professionals that the agency has embarked on a campaign to "target'' physicians who prescribe controlled substances for the treatment of pain (or that physicians must curb their legitimate prescribing of pain medications to avoid legal liability).The reason this document focuses on the prescribing of controlled substances for the treatment of pain is that there has been considerable interest among members of the public in having DEA address this specific issue.
Each State also has its own laws (administered by State agencies) requiring that a prescription for a controlled substance be issued only for a legitimate medical purpose by State-licensed practitioners acting in the usual course of professional practice.
The Supreme Court has long recognized that an administrative agency responsible for enforcing the law has broad investigative authority,\33\ and courts have recognized that prescribing an "inordinately large quantity of controlled substances'' can be evidence of a violation of the CSA.\34\ DEA therefore, as the agency responsible for administering the CSA, has the legal authority to investigate a suspicious prescription of any quantity.
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\33\ Morton Salt, 338 U.S. at 642-643 ("an administrative agency charged with seeing that the laws are enforced'' may "investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even just because it wants assurance that it is not.'').
\34\ United States v. Rosen, 582 F.2d at 1036
poster:garnet71
thread:898025
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090524/msgs/898414.html