Today, the Federal Food and Drug Administration issued guidelines on “abuse-deterrent formulations” for opioids.
Painkillers such as Vicodin, Lortab, and Norco that contain hydrocodone have evil cousins that contain “abuse deterrents”, which prevent hard core abusers from “crushing, grating, cutting or breaking” without a good deal of effort.
The move is to prevent snorting pills or dissolving them for a faster high.
While those minor deterrents have been added to brand name pills, the FDA is fighting to apply the same “technology” to generic pills.
But the way they propose going about it is to pressure makers of brand name products to conduct lengthy and expensive studies on the effectiveness of their abuse deterrent versions.
Those studies would then be used to fast track approvals from generic med makers.
Corporate cronyism at its best.
While opioid abuse is a problem with 75% of overdoses coming from hydrocodone specific prescription pills, it still comes down to personal responsibility and no amount of government regulation will stop stupid people from doing stupid things.
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