Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has joined with five of her counterparts in pushing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to better account for diverted opioid painkillers in setting its production quotas.
Moody and the other attorneys general sent comments on a proposed rule that identified 16 specific ways the DEA could better account for diversion when setting the number of pills that can be manufactured each year.
“The effects of the national opioid crisis on our country are devastating and we must attack this crisis from all angles, including understanding the diversion of opioids,” Moody said. “The DEA can help us tackle this problem by better accounting for diversion and gaining a more precise understanding on the nation’s legitimate needs for opioids.”
The comments seek to further refine and reform the DEA’s processes in the hope that opioid production quotas will decline. The comments follow sweeping reforms undertaken by the DEA in 2017 to its drug quota system that allowed for greater input and consideration of diversion in determining how many opioid pills can be manufactured each year.
The DEA previously relied on the amounts of pills pharmaceutical manufacturers expected to sell within a year to establish production quotas. The agency’s proposed limits for 2020 slash hydrocodone manufacturing by 19 percent and oxycodone by 8.8 percent in one year. Enacting the requested changes should lead to further reductions.
Florida joined the comments along with attorneys general from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and West Virginia.
To read the entire filing, click HERE.