DEA Wants to Target Drug Manufacturers in Opioid Supply

DEA Wants to Target Drug Manufacturers in Opioid Supply

By Ed Coghlan.

The Drug Enforcement Administration wants to be able to give companies quotas for the controlled substances that they produce. The DEA has a published a proposed rule change to direct the Administrator to issue procurement quotas for manufacturers.

The public comment period opened on Friday (April 19) and will last until May 4. Some pain advocacy groups are developing strategies to add the voice of the pain patients—many of whom depend on opioids to help manage their pain–to this discussion.

In addition to procurement quotas, the DEA says it wants to make other improvements in the “regulatory system for the production, manufacturing and procurement of controlled substances”.

The new rule would, if approved, require applicants for procurement quotas to state what basic class of controlled substance is needed, the purpose or purposes for which the class is desired, the quantity desired for each purpose during the next calendar year, and the quantities used and estimated to be used for each purpose during the current and preceding two calendar years.

If the applicant’s purpose is to manufacture another basic class of controlled substance, the applicant also must state the quantity of the other basic class that the applicant has applied to manufacture, and the quantity of the first basic class necessary to manufacture a specified quantity of the second basic class.

For more on the rule change and the address to either mail comments or directions on how to submit them online, you can go here.

This is the latest attempt by the DEA to ratchet up the pressure on the opioid supply in the country.

Earlier this month, the DEA announced it has reached an agreement with Attorneys General from 46 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia to share prescription drug information with one another in order to aid investigations. DEA’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) system collects some 80 million transaction reports every year from manufacturers and distributors of prescription drugs.

Last month, the DEA said it will add 250 task force officers and dozens of additional analysts to areas across America where the opioid crisis is at its worst. DEA task forces act as a force multiplier in carrying out DEA’s mission through coordination and cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in the U.S.

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Authored by: Ed Coghlan

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I am not going to get into my health on here and my story!
I am going to say the DEA needs to get out on the streets and target the ones who do get the prescription and sell them!
It is very hard for me to fathom how I suffer every single day but people in no pain are on the streets selling there pain pills that they got a legal prescription for! This is where the problem is and these people have been doing it for years. My reasoning its easier for the DEA agents to walk into a Doctors office and harass him or her then it is too get out there and walk the streets and stop these people from getting these scripts and maybe people like myself can get the treatment i need! The DEA harassed my doctor so bad that she closed up! Was not going to have any govt agency telling her how to treat her patients! DEA get out and walk the streets and Stop these ones getting legal scripts and selling them and leave the doctors alone already! They spent years in school to be doctors and I think they are more qualified then any DEA Agent!




ARE YOU SERIOUS.. !! They just won’t quite. Squeezing and Squeezing every aspect to gain CONTROL over Every place that deals with OPIOID’s ..Scarring The HELL out of Doctors and where they took all Patients off their Med’s. Doctor’s are literally Scared to Death to write a Script. WHO Gives a Rip if they are Elderly and having to resort to Cannabis for relief. The DEA…. needs to STOP… and go after the real OPIOID Dealers in the country.. To many People are REALLY SUFFERING because they can’t get their Pain Med’s. ITS ‘ GENOCIDE ” what they are doing… ” GENOCIDE ” … People are committing Suicide .. because the Pain they are in.. is just to much.. Treating us ALL…. like we are… ADDICTS and ABUSIVE to our Med’s. Regulation… after…. Regulation.. from the Doctors.. to the Pharmacies.. and on and on.. They have already Regulated how many Pain Med’s Pharmacies can have. NOW… NOW.. they are REGULATING the Quantity that you can have. It’s never ending.. To many Legitimate Pain Patients are in a lot of Pain. DO THEY CARE !! HELL NO.. just get them all off OPIOID’S.. That is their goal.. Do you REALIZE.. whats it like… to be in Literal Chronic PAIN day in a day out. It’s … UNBEARABLE. !!! The Pain takes over your mind. you lay on the couch more. Life just STOPS in every Direction… WAKE UP !! PAIN PATIENTS.. ARE SICK OF THIS DICTATORSHIP MENTALITY . GET BALANCED… GIVE US BACK OUR MED’S… SO WE CAN LIVE… !!!1


This scam is for opening new markets capable of making those who can invest large sums of money, alternative medicine what’s that? You can’t refill a flat tire without fixing the problem first.

Occupying Chronic Pain

WHY are these ignorant govt employees (elected or in agencies) who are SUPPOSED to work for US, #WeThePeopleInPain, allowed to continue to draw a taxpayer funded paycheck when they are perpetually assaulting us, both in body and mind, AND our 4th Amendment rights?

They are apparently illiterate, unable to read their OWN sister agencies reports such as “Relieving Pain In America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research” from the NIH’s Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care, and Education. and published by the National Academies Press in 2011 and funded by the NIH!

They are incapable or critical thought and are looking for an easy out of paying for the long-term care of the elderly and chronically and those who need opioids to live productive lives OR those who need them to achieve a quality of life worth living? In other words to live AT ALL.

Are old folks and the chronically ill and/or disabled JUST living WAY TOO LONG for the DEA, CDC, et al? Would they deny their OWN aged parent who’s lost in an Alzheimer dream OR their spouse who’s cancer makes them scream in pain day & night OR their little child born with a painful and LIFE-LONG condition the medication they NEED whether it’s medical marijuana or opioids?

If they answer YES then they have NO BUSINESS working in the American people’s employ! In fact, they should have lived long ago and worked in Hitler’s employ where the elderly, chronically ill and those with disabilities were the FIRST casualties of that EVIL regime!


PS: The feds need to target the PRICES of the meds needed long-term THAT would be in the interest of the public’s health and well-being and in the interest of their job security!


Did I read it wrong I clicked on link and read it docket was 480 and all comments are 2018 numbers can someone confirm was the number changed I wrote write after I clicked on the link
I can not open it now
I will rewrite one on DEA with new docket # and apologize to my fellow chronic pain patients


To finish my thought from other comment CDC keeps changing the numbers and have admitted the opiate deaths were all lumped together and have admitted it is illegal heroin or carbafentanyl or stolen opiates not’prescribed for them and I have seen documentaries of crushing oxycodone and heating it and snorting and cities want to have clean needle places for shooters of
Heroin etc but want to take away mine and many others
Légitimité opiates the doctor RX for pain.


I started and got interrupted but Patricia May your account of what you went through broke my heart for you ; I feel for all us chronic pain patients I too left a comment on Docket DEA-480 I suffered three days this month when my pharmacy had to fill out new paperwork or it would not get delivered through the vendor He is a wonderful pharmacist and anyone who is a pharmacist is used to detail because they can not make mistakes in dosing checks etc so why after two attempts it was not ok and why should a patient
Go without breakthrough meds because of paperwork I asked to speak to the vendor they
Order through and I got we usually do not talk with patients but I explained why I wanted too and again it was new ordering paperwork due to the DEA so thankfully the pharmacist went above and beyond and met with the vendor to
Figure out glitch Now I find out the DEA is requiring in addition to an already overworked pain doctor who has computerized prescriptions she gives me with all the WiCD 9 codes Now everytime anyone brings in a schedule two prescription the pharmacist has to call and talk with the pain provider for medical necessity
Despite all codes are put on script These pain doctors have so much hoops and threats they will retire like Dr Tennant in California or go into another line of medicine YET the irony is you are telling family doctors not write scripts or the clinics they work in no longer will allow just an annual Consult and receipe chronic pain patients have to see the pain md every month but then they are judged for writing too many scripts.
I have chronic pain from a rare neurological disease that finally I had stop working as an RN in cancer care I devoted my life to both acute and palliative care so I say respectfully if active cancer treatment is not involved in guidelines so no one does in pain other emphysema end stage morphine helps with air hunger but chronic pain in a condition that is not expected die in few weeks is asking us to live in pain for many years
It is not true opiates do not work after a week or so many patients become functional and stay on same dose
For years We’re is the ADA act and with all this acceptance as we should of people with
Differences why does being a sufferer of chronic pain often with illnesses very rare or post surgery outcome or terrible accident
Anyone on opiates has already done nsaid Tylenol try Foctors are to do no harm well that means patients should never be asked to suffer
CDC I looked

Kathy Gray

Have any of the DEA or family members ever suffered true pain? You want to manage doctors, and their patients. Do you know what it’s like to wake up every day in such severe pain you want to die? You’ve thought of the ways you would do it? We, pain patients are NOT the ones you need to go after. You’re trying to appease the public by going after the wrong people. Go after the all of the illegal fentanal that’s coming into our country. Do your research. Patients aren’t going to go out and steal, cheat, and kill to get their meds. No, we are going to suffer, and our families are going to suffer more. We aren’t the ones in chairs drooling, our meds let us be a part of our families lives, exercise to and extent, and be involved in life. You aren’t coming in and treating diabetics, seizure patients, or severe mental illness. So, I must ask you why you feel you know what’s best for us? You aren’t giving us an alternative. Are they going to now come out with a drug that supposedly helps us, but winds up causing strokes, heart attacks, and even death? Which, is what’s going to happen to the million special of us who need meds to be able to participate in life. Why are you so quick to “throw us in a ditch?” Again, I must ask you-Have you, or a loved one never experienced true pain? I get there’s a drug problem. My brother died of a heroin overdose. Drug seekers are going to continue to get their drugs. How about this? Why does is cost an arm and a leg for drug treatment after your insurance runs out? Why aren’t you looking into that? You have completely gone about this the wrong way, I feel, and some of you are going to wish you didn’t just throw millions of us “in a ditch somewhere” to die a very painful death!


When will DEA do medical evaluations on marijuana and admit it is wrong on placing it in schedule 1 category. It has always had medical use even to fight opiate addiction and to treat certain seizures… Stop playing politics with big business and the wealthy to keep marijuana illegal… regulate it and tax it like alcohol…

Ellen Brecka

Chronic pain patients deserve safe medications. By limiting the supply of opiates manufactured, those who suffer intractable chronic pain will be driven to the streets to find relief for their pain. Street drugs are notoriously unsafe, thus leading to more deaths, and providing the drug cartels with even more money. I have already seen this happen and it will happen more. Limiting the supply of safe medications for people who suffer is only going to cause more social problems. Limiting supply of needed medication is unjust, reckless, and not the answer to the opioid problem. Target those who are breaking the law.


What for money?? Give me a break!! People need to be real, if you overtook them you knew!! When you went in to the ER exaggerating pain, did the manufacturer make you do that, no! Doctorz made you aware giving you paperwork..the whole pain pill deal one big lie after lie! They help many people why punish those who need them like me with cancer…the DEA need to be closed for good…war on drugs failure since 1972 …the new pain pill…heroin the new doctorz are drug dealers…great job DEA, not!

Colleen Franzoia

My doctor recently left her practice I believe,in part, because of this ridiculous, one-size-fits-all war on chronic pain patients. I’ve suffered for over 40 years and have never, ever abused or taken more than my prescribed dose. My medication doesn’t completely stop the pain, but moves the pain down to a tolerable level that I can easily function during the day and sleep at night.

Each patient should be evaluated individually, by their own doctor, to determine if that person is abusing their prescribed medications.

If not, let them have what is therapeutically called for.


There are so many very painful conditions as well as surgeries that will leave people in agony and still the drug dealers will get drugs and the addicts will do them , this law not help stop that , but rather punish innocent people and leave them in agony.opiates are cheap to make and that do what they ate prescribed to do. There is no reason to limit people from stopping agony.


Okay, so how do I comment to the DEA regarding my Pain story? How do I get heard?

Julie Killingworth

This is complete violation of the 4th amendment. They have no right to my personal medical records. DEA are sadistic Depraved heart murderers


I got cut cold weaning..nothing except a sorry, nothing I can do . I have no life without pain control :'(

Gretchen Lont

My pain doctor is quitting her practice due to the DEA guidelines.I’m being weaned down.As someone who has tried to take her life before due to intolerable chronic pain,I’m scared.I promised my kids I would never try and kill myself again but as the pain starts creeping back, I’m hoping it’s a promise I can keep. I can’t believe a group that is in charge of making guidelines and rules for others doesn’t take in the consideration that height,weight,body chemistry play a huge part in people’s treatment.How can everyone be recommended the same dose.And the CDC getting the overdose count wrong.There is a huge difference between prescription overdoses and illegal opiate/heroin overdoses.We are on the road to a suicide epidemic and you are all responsible.We treat animals more humanely than this.We are letting these people govern us..WHY??

Cynthia Flesher

It’s really, really sad what I’m going to be faced with. I have Adhesive Arachnoiditis, one of the top pain conditions to have and the level of meds they have me on now is not enough but they can’t be increased due to all the new laws. It’s awful the life I live due to the amount of pain. If they cut my meds I don’t know what I will do, this is not a pain that you can live with being on a low dose pain med program. All this is going to do is increase the death rate because more people will committ suicide or find a way to calm the pain anyway possible. If the government is going to continue to punish pain patients and lives are going to be lost then we should be able to sue the government for wrongful death and that’s what needs to happen. We went after the tabacco companies, let’s go after the CDC and the DEA! Maybe that will change the protocols because it will be a wrongful death!

April DAwn

I can’t write much as I hurt too bad. But I will say that this is ONLY going to hurt innocent patients who are already suffering horribly, endlessly. This is only adding to the TORTURE these laws are creating in their “war against opioids” it is a war that only hurts chronic illness patients. Patients who end up ending their lives because of torture these laws and “guide lines”. It won’t stop the actual criminals from selling drugs. It won’t stop addicts from buying and using drugs and killing themselves by over dosing. IT WILL hurt me and all the rest of us with severe chronic pain. Please, I am begging anyone in power to actually talk to us, the people who are being hurt by this. Talk to our families and friends and see what this is doing to us. We do not deserve to be tortured. We deserve medically appropriate pain medications that work. I have been taking the same dose of opioid for years, I have not abused them, I have been given at least some amount of relief from them. More people with chronic illness are like me,than addicts . Please do not punish us when we have done nothing to deserve it and already are in agony.


It’s NOT the people with legitimate prescriptions that are the problem! Why is everyone blind to this?! This won’t “help” the problem, it will create another problem.


I can’t believe you feel justified in treating people, who have a legitimate medical conditions, so inhumanly. This time in history will be known as the time when the government sanctioned descriminitaiton against those who are chronically ill/in chronic pain. For those who pay attention to history, will recognize this drastic swing of the pendulum as an illogical knee jerk reaction. Stop! If you really care about curbing addiction (which seems unlikely given the fact that you are going-after the wrong people) then deal with the addicts who are getting illicit fentanyl and heroine, not paitients with valid medical needs who you are denying care to. Leave the decisions up to our doctors without your involvement. You don’t know our medical needs, you haven’t met with us and haven’t seen our medical record. If a doctor can be licensed and trusted by you to take care of us when we have a heart attack or diabetes or are in a tragic car accident, they should be competent to care for those of us in chronic pain. Are you saying that you made a mistake and the doctors our country lisence to practice medicine aren’t really capable of doing their job? Because that’s the message you are sending.

Patricia May

Because of your efforts to eliminate opiates I have gone thru 2 major surgeries and was given no pain medications. I cannot take NSAIDs or Excedrin because of kidney failure, because I had to quit taking opioids for my back. So I took over the counter medicines and it hurt my kidneys. I didn’t know Ibuprofen would hurt me. My doctor at UCSD was scared to give me Opiates because of you, DEA, threaten her. My liver (2015) was full of gallstones. First surgery took 6 hours to get through my stomach scar tissue and into my liver. After my surgery they left a drainage tube that expelled stomach acid all day long and it ate a big hole in my chest, that I can show you. In addition my liver was still full of stones they weren’t able to get first surgery and was very painful, the stomach acids pain was unbearable. I had a second surgery and finally got the stones out. As a result of almost 3months of uncontrolled pain I was literally skin and bones. I weighed what I did at age 9! Too weak to walk and no muscle tone left in my body. I came very close to death. I felt I was in a Chinese prison camp. You caused this insane, inhumane treatment! Then 2016 I had a back surgery. Once again sent home, my primary doctor would not provide opiates for pain control. You people don’t know what you are talking about. You people are sending home patients home from surgery without pain control. I was on opiates for years for back pain (spinal stenosis with nerves impinged, pain going down my legs). I never got addicted or took extra pills. Now I’ve suffered 2 surgeries without pain control and will die a slow painful death from kidney failure. I am supposed to have a spinal fusion but I won’t survive the pain without medications and the opiate restrictions are only getting worse. You are only allowing pain control for people with cancer. I have committed zero crimes, not even a traffic ticket. No drug seeking behavior. You people are BARBARIC.


Don’t deny chronic pain patients the medications they need! This is treating us like the addicts. We rely on meds; we aren’t criminals. This is inhumane.


This makes no sense at all. Do we successfully combat automobile related deaths by intentionally manufacturing less automobiles? The opioid crisis is a complex multi-faceted issue that won’t be fixed by a myriad of restrictions. That’s just causing more problems. When you keep chronic pain patients from treatment, it makes a bad situation worse. People have been killing themselves because they can’t deal with the pain any more. I’ve been that desperate myself. It’s beyond horrendous. I have true fear that I’ll go through that again and not be able to survive. I just want to live. I don’t ask to be 100%, just be functional enough to take care of my own daily needs. Please don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Many of us find opioids a very useful part of our pain management toolbox and we’ve proven ourselves to be responsible and trustworthy NON-addicts.

Nichole Smith

This is a heron and fake fentanyl crisis. These people are getting things off the streets this is not a legitimate pain patient crisis! I hope you guys can’t sleep at night because of what you do to us. A little bit of medicine that we do get does nothing for our pain. Y’all statistics are wrong and you know it! I run a support group of over 300 chronically ill pain patients and they suffer so bad they want to die. This is not right I’ve had over 30 surgeries to my body that I could not help my spine is mush and I have to have an upcoming surgery and it is horrible. We still have doctors that are going to write it regardless of what you do. Because they actually care!

Lakeisha Smith

Y’all are punishing us pain oatients and It’s not fair!!! Come on punish addicts and drug dealers not us! God forbid you ever get in excruciating pain 24/7 and it never goes away I kind of wish y’all would.

Tammy Soper

It is criminal that the government wants to restrict pain management for chronically ill patients! The abuse is people taking them without rx and mixing with other drugs and alcohol. You will have blood on your hands when suicide rates climb because people cant take the pain any longer!

Paula B

Get on the Federal Register (FR) and comment on the proposed ruling. We have to do more than show angry faces on Facebook. We need to fight. Read the instructions on making persuasive FR comments. Stick to the issue. Don’t use talk about CDC, etc. Just fight this ruling.

Lauren, RN

So they are going after the medicine, that is already in short supply, that saves the lives of those who suffer from severe pain. All the while they do nothing about the illcitly manufactured pills, fentanyl, and heroin that is actually killing people. Such cowards. Legislators need to do something for political optics, the DEA is their puppet, and they have no idea how to solve the illicit drug problem so they target pain patients instead using grossly manipulated data from the CDC. As a result, legitimate pain patients are now the enemy through no fault of their own. The legislators and DEA conveniently ignore the fact that the vast majority of people are able to use opioids without incident. They ignore the fact that less than 1% of chronic pain patients becomes addicted. They ignore the fact that people with legitimate opioid prescriptions are NOT the ones overdosing. Addicts who abuse pills use ones that never belonged them. Or they manipulate the system by faking pain to get a script from a doctor who is obligated to treat them per their request. Yet virtually all addicts who are overdosing are doing so on illicit pills mixed with other pills or alcohol, fentanyl, and/or straight-up heroin. The government needs to stop punishing chronic pain patients. They are not the enemy. They are not the cause. They suffer enough already and taking away their medicine solves nothing. You’ll just end up with more deaths. This time from suicide.


It’s a sad soon to be reality that soon irretractable pain patients in 3rd world countries will be receiving far superior health care than those in the U.S. It is obvious that pain patients are not being considered in new regulations proposed by the FDA even as an after thought.
I am so sorry for families that face difficult situations with members who are abusing meds.
But there are patients with incurable diseases whose rights are being ignored. It’s quickly becoming a human rights issue.
When patients are given prescriptions that are indicated and appropriate by their physician, they should have the right to fill the prescription(s) and take such medications.
Being a patient with numerous diseases including CRPS which rates as the highest pain level on most pain scales, it seems quite barbaric to tell me that I’m not allowed prescribed meds because someone else abused their meds. I am being discriminated against no differently than someone who might be because of the color of skin, gender or religion only I’m discriminated against because I am sick and require meds to make my life bearable.

mme. souris

I beg to differ, Maggie Jones. It is not a Fentanyl crisis. It is a *counterfeit* Fentanyl flooding in from China crisis. Fentanyl is an important tool in the control of chronic pain, just like other opioids, but with less chance of accidental overdose since you only change it every other day, vs. keeping up with pill timing, number of pills, etc. It also eliminates the problem of spikes and lows that happen when pills are taken, a problem that can lead to the belief that one needs higher doses, when what is really needed is a more consistent delivery system.

The last thing we need to do is attack the medications our fellow pain patients require to live. Please be careful when pointing fingers at other legitimately necessary prescription medications.

Michele Walck

Why punish people who have chronic pain and are not addicts!! I know 2 young herion addicts. They have been at a methadone clinic for OVER 15 YEARS!! why are the addicts aloud to be on high doses for life but yet chronic pain patients!! They don’t even have to pass the drug test and they still get thier methadone. So they can take all the pills they want, herion what ever, and they still get thier methadone every day. Someone I know even got disability because he ruined his kidneys with all the pills and herion!!! I can’t even work and I can’t get disability!! Yet druggies are handed everything. Why do druggies get methadone for life?? You want to stop the overdosing, take the addicts off of the methadone after a year or so!!! It’s the druggies overdosing. Not chronic pain people. You are torturing your own people. I was on a pain med for 14 years!! I was not addicted. I was now taken off of it and told to take a BUNCH of ibuprofen and Tylenol!! Sorry but taking high doses of nsaids is worse than taking a pain med!! I had ulcers in my twenties from taking so much ibuprofen to try and stop this pain in the beginning. I went through all the meds my PCP gave me, did physical therapy 6 times, had every injection known to man and none of it worked except the pain medicine. I wasn’t even on a high dose! I never failed a drug test, had my pills counted, and never even went up on my dosage for 14 years!! The pain doctors are pushing me for surgery but the surgeon won’t do it. Then I was told that young people are no longer able to have pain pills! What does age have to do with chronic pain and injuries!! That is DISCRIMINATION!! To turn someone down because of thier age is against the LAW!! I was in a horrible accident at 16 and no it was not my fault. I had my right hip completely dislocated. When the doctor punched it back in, he did it so hard that he rotated my hips! So instead of being straight across my right hip is pushed way up, my left hip is pushed way back. My back had to compensate for this after going years with it like that. I now need at least 3 fusions, I have multiple fractured endplates, 3 or 4 herniated disc!! I will also need both hips replaced at some point!! How can you even say that I don’t deserve somekind of relief!! Fracture your back and have all this, and then go with out any kind of pain meds! I have a son to raise and I can’t even do that right now. My life was taken away from me! Think about it!!

Stacey Martin

This a great idea if you want to have law abiding pain patients killing themselves, and if you want to increase the use of black market narcotics.

This effects EVERYONE because at some point everyone has an injury or surgery, and there are already shortages. Why would you make this worse? It’s cruelty and totally unnecessary

Max Nix

This should be up to medical professionals to mange pain. NOT a government agency.

Brenda Bierens

I have been on opioids for over 10 years to help me live as normal life as possible. I’ve had 15 surgeries to date between my spine, feet and shoulders. I have a connective tissue disease that causes my joints to dislocate and break, my spine collapsed and had to be fused in every level except my neck so far, but that too had dislocated vertibre that causes nerve pain and exccrutiating neck pain. I can not be fixed, the disease process can not be stopped, the only thing I can do is stablize joints as the breakdown and treat pain. Why am I being punished because others use these medications improperly? I have never been hospitalized for overdose or addiction because I use my meds the way they are intended. Chronic pain patients have had to deal with enough but now our government wants to punish us even more. These meds help those with chronic disabling conditions and without them I fear our suicide rates will rise, as people can not live with that pain or live life. Please, I beg of you to protect those with with medical evidence of a disease process and let doctors do their jobs. Don’t punish the pain patients as they have done nothing wrong.


Why punish everyone because of the addicts we have real pain real problems and need our medications. Its [edit] that heroin took over our streets and the people in pain and suffering are the ones punished


This is punishing people who need legitimate pain relief. Why is nothing being done about the illegal drug trade. I feel the more you restrict legal use of opioid pain medication, the more you push people to illegally finding things to give them relief.

Why punish illegitimate chronic pain patients ? We are hurting and not able to function in society when we are suffering in pain due to constant regulatory changes. We are compliant, we are not abusing our medications, we have pill counts, we have urinalysis etc and we are responsible and compliant!

It’s not a prescription opioid crisis but a HEROIN AND FENTANYL CRISIS! it’s the illegal drugs and drugs that are obtained illegally that are the priblem but WE, LAW abiding citizens that are paying the price with our lives.

Please consider us, please do not discard us or minimize our legitimate pain. Please don’t make us suffer more.

Please, don’t throw us away.


I have chronic pain and need relief. I have been sick for 18 years with Lupus, RA, Graves Disease, Sjogrens, Raynauds, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, spondylosis of the cervical and lumbar spine, and degenerative arthritis in my ankles and feet really bad. I understand you need to stop these illegal users and addicts. But at what cost???? Right now the cost is me. Because they are still finding theirs and I am just suffering.


This needs to stop! Chronic pain patients should not be punished because of the people that abuse their meds. If this continues there will be an increase in deaths from suicide. Chronic pain is a very dark place and without relief it becomes even darker.


Im a cpp and deserve to have my pain treated by a certified doctor who has the training to be a doctor. When you, who have no medical degree made the decision to interfer with the patient / doctor relationship my care went straight out the window ! The doctor who treated me by prescribing me dosages that worked for me, and only me was made to treat me the same as any other patient as though we have the same needs, metabolism etc, etc, etc ! This isn’t a one size fits all, and now you want to dictate how much pain medicine can be manufactured? My God, we’re much more developed then this and are headed to 3rd world crountry standards. I hope the UN steps in for you politicians, FDA, and CDC any any other minion who thinks with reducing opiate counts, while inflicting pain on already painful conditions are put on trial for harming, abusing the power given to you to actually keep us out of harms way! Your doing the exact opposite of that, your harming us, and one last thing ! If you think for one minute your saving lives, think again ! Your sending good honest legal cpp into the black market for their pain relief. This will cause more deaths then what your seeing now, then what, all legal opiates have been gone, now where do you place the blame ? Bottom line, leave the legal, safe opiates alone, and focus on the real problem, the stuff coming across our borders, the stuff laced with fentanyl or other deadly chemicals, enough is enough ! God, please hear my prayers ! Thank you !!


Heather, this is discriminatory and wrong. And yes, there is a legal means to challenge it. Just look at the power of 1954’s “Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka Kansas” given the rights of integration to African American youth and any minority.

Yes, there is a way. Victims are not powerless.


It’s a shame you punish the people who have legit medical pain issues because you can’t control the real street drug dealers. Using us to show some kind of control, yet at the same time causing a bigger street drug problem because that’s where people will turn next. Or worse.. increased suicides. I don’t understand the logic of this. It’s almost as if there’s a hidden agenda behind this all. And not for the benefit of the citizens. Stop punishing patients!!!


Stop the war against chroinc pain patients! Go to the streets for the illegal drugs. You are making chroinc pain patients want to die!! It’s not the chronic pain patients that are misusing the meds. Please regonize this!

Dee D

This to me is considered to be cruel and unusual punishment to “legitimate” pain patients! Why must our government punish innocent ppl who live in chronic pain? The majority are law abiding citizens who just want to be able to live their lives without being in severe chronic pain! Does the government really believe this will stop the so called Opiod Crisis? Legitimate pain patients DO NOT abuse their medications because they cant afford to. We take what IS prescribed just so we can function! You take that away from us there will be MORE deaths and MORE ppl who cannot work if they can’t work, what will happen? They will lose everything they’ve work hard for and it could end up causing MORE homeless and MORE deaths! Please STOP punishing us for just trying to survive!


I am beyond worried and confused! My deceased mother had severe chronic migraines everyday for at least 40 + years. I have inherited these severe chronic migraines. They started at age 27 and I am now 68. In order to function, I have been on various drugs including opioids.
Yet, NEVER have I tried a street drug or marijuana or even cigarettes. I gave up all alcohol as soon as I was prescribed opiods. I follow all rules, never abuse and yet they are threatening my doctor, an anesthesiologist turned and board certified PAIN SPECIALIST so in return he is scared that he will lose his medical license if he continues to prescribe opiods to his patients, all of whom suffer from chronic pain!
He knows that I follow all instructions on each prescribed medication. Yet, he is unwilling to continue to help me because of the DEA. This leaves me in pain!

If.this denial of opiates , that have truly been a life saver for me, continues, I may have to turn to street drugs at age 70! I am scared to death to try them, but the DEA is leaving me with NO CHOICE!

Then my risk of overdose on drugs (from places and people that have no scruples) wil escalate dramatically!

DEA, go for it and you will help the Cartels thrive while Americans with severe chronic pain will either commit suicide or turn to street drugs and DIE!


Well it’s no surprise, one week they address the drug shortage they caused, now it’s limit the drugs, these idiots can’t even lie good anymore, ya u bet they and there families d ont do without their pain meds, but us chronic pain patients are screwed, just give it up, cause you can’t beat these fools, maybe when they have to watch their father, die of cancer without any PAIN relief like me and my family are doing, maybe just maybe that will open their eyes, but I dought it, I am done with the health care system,doctors that let me suffer after 12 years of pain management and most of all these cruel goverment people that think it’s fine to watch your dad die from cancer and PAIN, well karma bus is coming for you. I hope everyone of you feel and see the pain i do everday!!!!!

Joe flock

You Prohibitionist are ruining my life, but important than my mom… the only medications that controls my pain are opioids and unfortunately for me I can only take Fentanyl without it making me sick… stop with your dictatorship type controlling… y’all are causing numberless people to suffer and die… please my life is hard enough but I have to be able to help my mom as well… and she has had the same amount prescribed to her for almost 20 years… not until know has she had such difficulty….

YALL ARE MONSTERS OF DEATH….your prohibitionism faith is creating you worse nightmare… as prescription drop to 10 year low, we have the 10 year highest ODs…. why? Because you are handing cartels and gangs the market…. you do this to protect people (I hope) but you are really making cartels supply of far greater worth, meaning they will move into your smug upperclass neighborhoods and bring the spike Heroine to your kids…

WHERE IS THE IBUPROFEN EPIDEMIC??? THAT KILLS the exact same as opioid pills around 15,000…. and 75% of those ODs were from people that didn’t receive the pill legally

Please stop torturing the chronically ill suffering for something that they neither their doctor had a part in….


As to “ mass casualties “ and other arguments reliant upon classic opioid treatment or combination treatmement.. I have tried to hint at a very viable alternative and Ed has even considerately induced a Pain Management Provider to provide some framework info on the mainstay analgesic ( non-addictive) studied by the US Army since 2008 and now used in the main in Afghanistan since 2010-In fact I used it in extensive burn care for pediatric patients nearly 2 decades ago and has approval by the FDA for both Pain management and chronic depression and long the number one go to and safest adjunct to anesthesia in the underdeveloped World ! Presently only a schedule 4 drug and admittedly not even gone unnoticed by the better informed street user ( by insulflation) but seemingly purposefully by the CP “ threatened” public-At a cost of only $.50-$1.00 / liter for
infusion and one of only 2drugs
affecting the unaffected NMMB pain receptor ( the other
methadone) -I just have to wonder with the “ Sky Falling” why there seems so little interest or demand for better access for although covered by MC Part B on appeal there are few providers and this CP sufferer being one of those on the hunt -I dot try to bring this paradox to the attention of My
Legislators but apparently a
single voice -If even curious
Brothers and Sisters inquire on
U Tube for Ketamine Induction-Just do it-Doug