DEA takes aggressive stance toward pharmacies trying to dispense addiction medicine

[Jilly_in_VA]

When Martin Njoku saw opioid addiction devastate his West Virginia community, he felt compelled to help. This was the place he'd called home for three decades, where he'd raised his two girls and turned his dream of owning a pharmacy into reality.

In 2016, after flooding displaced people in nearby counties, Njoku began dispensing buprenorphine to them and to local customers at his Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy in Fayette County.

Buprenorphine, a controlled substance sold under the brand names Subutex and Suboxone, is a medication to treat opioid use disorder. Research shows it halves the risk of overdose and doubles people's chances of entering long-term recovery.

"I thought I was doing what was righteous for people who have illness," Njoku said.

But a few years later, the Drug Enforcement Administration raided Njoku's pharmacy and accused the facility of contributing to the opioid epidemic rather than curbing it. The agency revoked the pharmacy's registration to dispense controlled substances, claiming it posed an "imminent danger to public health and safety."

Although two judges separately ruled in Njoku's favor, the DEA's actions effectively shuttered his business.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/11/08/1053579556/dea-suboxone-subutex-pharmacies-addiction

[CanonRay]

1. The DEA has outlived its usefulness

[RFCalifornia]

7. Agreed. Abolish the DEA

Roll the out of work cops into the ATF

[rickyhall]

2. Was it ever useful? I think not.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. It was very useful to J. Edgar.

*SNARK*

[Hekate]

5. Indeed it was

[Elessar Zappa]

4. Suboxone saved my life.

I take 2mg every day and probably will the rest of my life. I’m not ashamed at all. The alternative is jail or death.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Utterly Ridiculous

My wife suffers from chronic pain due to 5 abnormalities in her lumbar region.
She has tried nerve block shots. Works sometimes for a few days, other times not at all. Nerve ablasion is considered an option with a 50% chance of 50% relief.
With all that, no doctor or medical group will prescribe long term pain management meds.
Not even the PAIN MANAGEMENT specialist!
Our GP used to give her modest dose Norco, 2 per day.
That entire hospital corporation no longer allows doctors to prescribe for long term management.
The Sacklers got off easy, the drug companies still profit, 80+% of those taking those drugs are not abusers of it, but people like my wife (and this pharmacist) get punished.
Just stupid.
BTW: Surgery is not an option. The back surgeon gave an estimate that there was under a 50% chance that surgery would provide ANY relief.

[haele]

8. Pain management specialists are jokes.

Spouse hade a standing prescription for Oxycodone as needed for years, maybe took 50 pills a year when it got really bad. Never got addicted at all. Then he had to go to a pain management specialist, and suddenly, he was monitored, expected to take those pills every day, or he couldn't get the pain meds he needed only occasionally. Within 6 months he was addicted, and needed greater dosages and eventually stronger narcotics to manage his pain, which was becoming worse.
They found out he was allergic to Suboxone. So he just quit slowly, after getting his last prescription and finding an old bottle of his previous casual prescription that got lost during a move.
This, plus CBD butter used to make home made CBD caramel corn and brownies to help him get clean. Six months it took.
After that, he just puts up with the pain, even though there are days he can't get out of his recliner or be a functioning member of the family because of the pain.

I understand lots of people can't handle narcotics, but pain managers appear to be more interested in shuttling people in and out of their clinics than actually helping people manage their pain enough to function.

Haele