New Mexico鈥檚 senior U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich is leading a bipartisan call for the Drug Enforcement Administration to make the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine more accessible. In to the agency this week, the group of senators argued the DEA needs to be more transparent about its policies.
is an evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder that reduces cravings and can lower the risk of overdose by as much as 40%, according to a recent. However, in order for it to save lives, people addicted to opioids need to have access to it 鈥� and do not.
In the letter, Heinrich and 16 other senators, including three Republicans and New Mexico鈥檚 other Democratic Senator Ben Ray Luj谩n, expressed concern that the DEA has a hand in the problem.
They鈥檙e calling on the agency to join with the Food and Drug Administration and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in evaluating the accessibility issue and resolving it.
鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 be harder to get a prescription to treat opioid use disorder than it is to get opioids in the first place,鈥� Heinrich told 九色网 in a statement.
The senators argued that the DEA hasn鈥檛 done enough to make its regulations understandable 鈥� not only to patients, but also to those prescribing and dispensing the medication.
did away with a waiver needed to prescribe the medication, which had been a significant bureaucratic barrier to getting access to the treatment. Eliminating the 鈥淴-waiver鈥� upped the number of providers nationwide from 130,000 to 1.8 million, according to the letter. But getting a prescription isn鈥檛 the only blockage in the system 鈥� a patient also needs to be able to fill it.
A key hurdle to taking the medication, according to , is pharmacies not having it in stock. The senators say there鈥檚 that the DEA imposes ordering limits on the drug, which helps fuel the empty shelves. They argue more can be done to clarify that such a cap doesn鈥檛 exist, and are calling on the agency to issue formal guidance on the matter.
