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EDITORIAL: Opioid prescription guidelines must not be eliminated

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin - 4/4/2019

April 03-- Apr. 3--T

he Trump administration's efforts to eliminate or revamp government regulations, rules and guidelines that are unnecessary, counterproductive or foolish might be productive when appropriately applied.

But the administration, specifically the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is blundering in its effort to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opioid prescribing guidelines in the midst of a national opioid epidemic. Now is not the time to reduce efforts to curb abuse of the highly addictive drugs that are leaving death and ruined lives in their wake.

This week Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, a Republican, are leading a bipartisan coalition of 38 other attorneys general urging the federal government to reverse course on its proposal to eliminate opioid prescribing guidelines.

The guidelines issued by the CDCP in 2016 aim to curb overprescribing by providing health providers a framework for when to recommend the painkilling drug to patients. Ferguson, in a news release, said overprescribing contributes to the opioid epidemic by increasing the illegal supply of opioids. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed eliminating key components of the guidelines in a draft report issued December 2018, specifically provisions relating to dose and duration of opioid treatment.

This is just flat-out wrong. The pressure must be kept on to curb this epidemic.

Ferguson is at the helm of this effort by two-thirds of the states' attorneys general because he has demonstrated the resolve to tackle the opioid problem.

Ferguson's office last month launched a lawsuit against three opioid distributors the attorney general said ignored their responsibility to suspend and report suspicious orders from Washington state pharmacies. The lawsuit is against McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug, which are largest opioid distributors in the state. Earlier, Ferguson's office sued opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma.

Ferguson and Montana's Fox cowrote the letter to Health and Human Services contending the HHS draft report pushes the same discredited claims that opioid manufacturers made for years before the epidemic, including the baseless assertion that opioids only have addictive properties in certain at-risk populations.

The pair point out that studies show anyone who takes an opioid is at risk for misuse and addiction, especially if they are exposed to longer duration prescriptions.

A study of a million surgical patients who had not previously taken opioids found that each additional week of opioid treatment increased the risk for opioid misuse by 20 percent, they wrote, adding that a refill increased their risk by 44 percent.

This facts make it clear that more, not less, should be done to keep people from being hooked on opioids.

The federal government should listen to a majority of the state attorneys general in America.

Editorials are the opinion of the Union-Bulletin's Editorial Board. The board is composed of Brian Hunt, Rick Eskil, James Blethen and Alasdair Stewart

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