News: Bill to Boost Controls on Vicodin
(Long Island, N.Y.) A New York State senator is pushing fellow lawmakers to enforce stricter laws controlling hydrocodone, the main component used to manufacture drugs like Vicodin, an addicting and potent narcotic. A bill was filed yesterday that will position hydrocodone in a more limiting category on the classification from the New York State Controlled Substances Act.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, hydrocodone abuse has increased in recent years. Hydrocodone is the second most frequently encountered opioid pharmaceutical. The danger is in the relative ease of obtaining hydrocodone, which many drug users use to their advantage.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported that there were over thirty deaths associated with hydrocodone in 2009. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that over twenty-three-million people in the United States used hydrocodone for nonmedical purposes and recreation. It was also reported that 86,258 emergency department visits were connected with the nonmedical use of hydrocodone.
The bill is expected to intensify the punishments for anyone in possession of hydrocodone without a prescription. This would also mean that patients will no longer be able to obtain refills for their prescription until making a clinical visit to their healthcare provider. Consequently, many followers of the story believe that the bill comes as a response to a series of Long Island pharmacy thefts, in which these types of drugs were demanded by criminals.
Undoubtedly the most notorious pharmacy raid was that of the husband and wife duo responsible for the Medford Massacre. Four victims were executed point blank without resisting the killer’s demands to obtain the drug behind the pharmacy counter. The husband was charged with five counts of first-degree murder while the wife is charged with robbery and having driven the getaway car.
Reports stated that federal laws tend to coincide with state laws in regards to drugs, but each state still has its own legislation when it comes to illegal substances. The current hydrocodone laws are outdated because the drug has been considered to be more potent than what was previously determined.
Originally, it was thought that the drug was a narcotic associated with opium. Sources have stated that hydrocodone, when mixed with non-narcotic painkillers, falls into different legal categories. This makes the drug dangerous, being that there are still less restrictions on these types of hybrid drugs, and legislators are aiming to close the loophole.
