Washington D.C. — CLAAD (Center for Lawful Access and Abuse Deterrence), is a non-profit that coordinates a comprehensive national effort to prevent the diversion, misuse, and abuse of prescription medications while ensuring adequate medical care for patients in need.
But CLAAD’s Director, Michael Barnes says, “every year, at least 16,000 Americans die from overdosing on prescription pain drugs. The abuse of opioid pain medications cost the country over $50 billion every year in lost productivity, criminal justice expenses, drug treatment outlays and medical complications.”
Barnes also said, specifically on the “pill crushing” issue, substance abusers often pulverize and snort, or melt the pills to inject for a faster, more intense high.
To prevent this problem, the makers of Oxycotin and Opana reformulated their pills to prevent such tampering and misuse, such as crushing the pills.
Some generic drug companies say that requiring them to make their products tamper-resistant will keep generic drugs off the market. Barnes insists that is not the case. Saying that generic drug makers may create their own abuse deterrents, or license anti-tampering delivery mechanisms on their own.
A bill before congress, the STOPP Act, will prohibit any old-formula Opioid from entering the market if the FDA approves abuse-deterrent version of the pills.
