Lawmakers worried about new painkiller drug
By Matthew McKibben
Last October, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a controversial new hydrocodone painkiller, and now a Brooklyn assemblyman is asking for the decision to be overturned.
Steven Cymbrowitz, the chair of the Assembly Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee, has in the past commended the job the FDA has done on implementing guidelines and safeguards to deter abuse of prescription drugs. But he says this particular drug Zohydro is not tamper-resistant, meaning a user could crush and snort the pill or even begin injecting the drug with a needle.
In November Cymbrowitz wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg saying, "Realizing the error of your decision now, while there is still time, is preferable to regretting the likely tragedies that will occur later."
Cymbrowitz says Zohydro is highly addictive and will be "exceedingly attractive" to abusers when it is released in the next few weeks. In addition, the Democrat said the drug is extremely powerful and will lend itself to abusers because it provides an immediate, intense high. "To those of us on the front lines of the painkiller addiction crisis, success is an incremental process," Cymbrowitz said. "That is why your decision to release a drug like Zohydro is so puzzling. Instead of continuing this hopeful trend, Zohydro, with its sheer power and lack o f appropriate safeguards, only seems to undermine the progress that the FDA has been making until now."
http://www.legislativegazette.com/Articles-Top-Stories-c-2014-03-17-87215.113122-Lawmakers-worried-about-new-painkiller-drug.html