The Drug Enforcement Administration will take major steps to halt the oversupply of opioids that has contributed to the nationwide epidemic.
A regulation announced Tuesday is a direct result of a lawsuit from West Virginia filed last month. The lawsuit wants changes to a DEA rule to end pill dumping in the state, as opioids flooded small communities and helped spark the epidemic.
The rule focuses on major changes to a yearly quota that the DEA sets for the amount of opioids that drugmakers can sell in a given year, but the quota system didn’t account for pills being diverted to the black market.
The quota was determined by asking the drug industry how many pills drugmakers could sell in a given year. Under the proposed rule, the quota now will take into account how many pills could be diverted to the black market.
“The perverse system placed industry wants over the legitimate medical need of patients and led to an overabundance of pills hitting the market,” said West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
The rule would boost input from states and federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services on setting the yearly quotas. It also would give states the power to call a mandatory hearing before the DEA to present evidence of excess opioids.
Morrisey suspended the state’s lawsuit against the Department of Justice at the beginning of March soon after it was filed. The suspension was in response to a directive from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to explore changes to the quota system.
West Virginia has been hit harder than any other state by the opioid epidemic. Federal data shows that in 2016, there were 52 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people in the state. Ohio and New Hampshire came in second with 39.
A major issue has been pill dumping by illicit drug distributors, giving thousands of pills to small, often rural communities.
On Monday, Morrisey’s office reached a settlement of more than half a million dollars with a pharmacy in Boone County, West Virginia. The state’s lawsuit charged that the pharmacy distributed nearly 10 million doses of opioids in 11 years for a county that has fewer than 25,000 people.
Morrisey said he was pleased by the DEA’s decision.
“The reform sought by DEA proves the impact of our lawsuit is still reverberating in Washington and producing real results capable of ending the oversupply of deadly and addictive painkillers that has killed far too many,” he said.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also has been investigating pill dumping in West Virginia. The committee’s investigations panel has scheduled a hearing this month with major drug distributors.
Sessions detailed the quota changes at an event in Raleigh, N.C. He also announced an agreement between the DEA and 48 attorneys general to share prescription drug information to help aid investigations.
“These reports contain information like distribution figures and inventory,” Sessions said. “DEA will provide our state partners with that data, and the states will provide their own information to DEA.”
