The FDAs new drug policy

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/

Category: Drug Abuse

Level: Federal/National

Who: Families and Individuals

How: These new regulations and reforms will help decrease death rates in United States

My Views: 

The abuse and over prescription of common painkillers is a serious problem in the United States. Not only is our country extremely overprescribed with pharmaceuticals in general, the abundance of painkiller prescriptions being handed out is sickening. Three fourths of all drug overdoses in the United States are from prescription painkiller drugs, especially Opioids like OxyContin or Vicodin. Thankfully the Food and Drug Administration is taking actions that could potentially decrease the instances of prescription drug abuse. The FDA is putting limitations to how many refills a patient is allowed with prescription painkillers, and it is also requiring the patient to have an actual prescription, the doctors will no longer be able to call in painkiller prescriptions. Not only will this ensure that only people who need these pills get them, it will hopefully slow the awful ramifications of drug abuse. Unfortunately I have had too many good friends lose their lives to being addicted to painkillers, and these new regulations will work to cut off accessibility of addicts to these pills. I am happy that the federal government is finally using their resources to help stop the awful cycle of pill addiction. Even though the FDA has a while to go with completely eradicating drug abuse problems, it’s refreshing that there is an effort being made to change policy.