Following Brown Action, DEA Decreases Number of Prescription Opioids that Can Be Produced in the U.S.

WASHINGTON – Following a July 2016 letter from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) urging Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg to use the agency’s authority to reduce the quantity of opioid pills on the market, the DEA has announced it will lower the number of prescription opioids can be produced and sold in the United States next year. Fewer drugs on the market will help combat the ongoing prescription opioid and heroin epidemic. The DEA will reduce next year’s production limit for nearly all Schedule II prescription opioids by 25 percent or more. Three powerful, addictive painkillers will see the most significant reductions from what is allowed on the market this year: hydrocodone (34% reduction), oxymorphone (45% reduction), and hydromorphone (38% reduction).

“Reducing the amount of prescription opioids on the market makes it less likely that these highly addictive painkillers will fall into the wrong hands, and less likely that individuals will become addicted in the first place,” Brown said. “I commend the DEA for taking action – this is an important step toward preventing addiction. Our continued fight against the opioid addiction devastating our communities requires a multi-pronged solution. That includes implementing additional preventive measures, giving patients greater access to medically-assisted drug addiction treatment in the outpatient setting, and supporting additional funding for efforts to combat addiction.”

Over the past two decades, the DEA had approved ever-greater increases in opioid production limits, allowing production of oxycodone to increase 39-fold, hydrocodone to increase 12-fold, hydromorphone to increase 23-fold, and fentanyl to increase 25-fold. Today’s announcement represents the largest decrease in opioid production limits in two decades. 

Brown also welcomed the DEA’s announcement that it had considered the impact of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain” on doctors’ prescribing practices in determining the quantities of prescription opioids required to meet legitimate medical and scientific need.

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