Lawmakers urge tighter controls on hydrocodone

A bipartisan duo from the House is pressuring federal regulators to crack down on prescriptions for the painkiller hydrocodone.

Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) wrote to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg urging her to move painkillers containing hydrocodone, such as Vicodin, from a Schedule III to a Schedule II drug.

“Re-classifying hydrocodone combination drugs would limit how much … a patient can receive in between doctor visits and would require written prescriptions, rather than prescriptions that are faxed or called in by phone,” the two wrote to Hamburg on Monday.

“Prescription drug abuse is wreaking havoc on countless families and communities across our nation,” Buchanan and Markey wrote, adding that the drugs “are now the most widely prescribed painkillers in the country, with more than 131 million prescriptions for hydrocodone written in 2010 alone.”

Prescription drug abuse has soared in the U.S. in the past decade. A study by the Department of Health and Human Services found that the rate of pain-reliever dependence for those aged 12 or older increased from 936,000 to 1.4 million from 2002 to 2010.

Buchanan and Markey plan to reintroduce a bill called the Pill Mill Crackdown Act next week, which also aims to make the medications harder to get.

“Re-classification of hydrocodone combination drugs alone is not enough to end the scourge of prescription drug abuse,” they said, “but regulating these potent painkillers appropriately is a critical step."

Last week, an FDA advisory panel voted 19-10 to place new restrictions on narcotic painkillers containing hydrocodone.