Opioid Intervention & Prevention Efforts

(Winter 2016) The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently cemented a final order that will cut the 2017 amount of most Schedule II opiate and opioid medications produced in the U.S. by at least 25%. This is due in part to a reduction in the number of prescriptions issued for these drugs as well as other market considerations. The production of some medications, such as hydrocodone, will be slashed by two-thirds of the previous year’s numbers.

The effort to reduce availability comes at a good time. The latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) uncovered that 6.5 million Americans age 12 or older abused prescription drugs within the past 30 days, only marijuana was abused more. Those using prescription drugs for non-medical reasons as reported in the NSDUH outnumber the combined past-month users of heroin, cocaine and hallucinogens.

In an effort to combat the nationwide opioid concern, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently dispersed $53 million to 44 states. Ohio is one of the states benefiting from the funding. The $2 million granted to the Buckeye State will advance programs that work to prevent opioid misuse, track opioid overdoses and promote prescription drug abuse prevention education to both the general public and physicians.

Meanwhile, Seattle is working toward launching the country’s first facilities for clinically-supervised heroin injections. The government-funded centers would permit heroin-addicted individuals to legally use the substance while being medically supervised. The city’s plan is similar to a clinic in Canada that is permitted to distribute diacetylmorphine hydrochloride, the active substance in heroin, to those addicted to the drug as frequently as three times daily. Canada is also allowing its physicians to issue prescriptions for pharmaceutical-grade heroin to treat extreme cases of addiction that have not been controlled by more standard methods.

On yet another front, researchers from both the United States and Germany are coming together in an attempt to develop a medication with effects similar to those of morphine but without the associated risks of respiratory failure, constipation and addiction. Although additional testing on this drug (now known as PZM21) is needed to ensure that it is both non-addictive and appropriate for humans, research results among mice appear promising.

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