Responsible Use of Prescription Medications Saves Lives
Representative Trisha Beck, D–Sandy
District 48
In 2007 our family suffered a terrible tragedy. My dear nephew suffered an accidental overdose after he became addicted to a medication that had been subscribed to him for pain. Unfortunately, he died.
I don’t want other families to go through the pain and heartache that my family has gone through. That is why I am sponsoring a bill that that would place drugs like cardisoprodol, sold under the brand name Soma, as a Schedule IV drug. If this bill passes, it will be added to Utah’s Controlled Substance Database Program.
The following articles appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News today. They are very good articles and do a great job telling the story.
I hope that we can all work together on this very important issue.
Interim committee recommends tracking of muscle relaxant
A prescription drug used to treat muscle pain and tension could soon be added to Utah’s list of controlled substances, a move that would allow law enforcement to more easily detect abuse and fraud involving the medication.
The Health and Human Services Interim Committee approved a draft bill sponsored by Rep. Trisha Beck that would place cardisoprodol, sold under the brand name Soma, as a Schedule IV drug.
If the bill is passed by the 2010 Legislature, the drug would be added to Utah’s Controlled Substance Database Program, allowing tracking of prescriptions and creating penalties for unlawful possession or distribution of the drug. Refills would be limited to five times within six months.
The committee declined to sign off on listing tramadol, sold under the brand name Ultram and Ultracet, as a Schedule IV drug, saying there wasn’t enough evidence of abuse to justify monitoring use of the analgesic. Several committee members said they wanted to defer a decision on tramadol until a standard process is created in Utah to review listing of medications as controlled substances. A bill to do that is in the works.
Beck said a study group comprised of law officers, prosecutors, pharmacists, physicians, family members, legislators and other government officials, recommended the classification for the two drugs.
“Listing the drugs as scheduled drugs puts patients and family members on notice of the fact that these drugs, which greatly effect the nervous system, are often abused and are very addictive,” said Beck, who lost a nephew to an addiction to painkillers in 2007.
Other medications listed as Schedule IV drugs include Xanax, Valium, Lunesta and Ambien. Drugs in the classification have potential to result in physical or psychological dependence.
Rep. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, a committee member and pharmacist, said the muscle relaxant also has a sedating effect. It is typically abused in combination with alcohol or other drugs, he said. Less abuse and dependency occurs with tramadol, he said.
Seventeen states have listed cardisoprodol as a scheduled drug, while two have taken that step with tramadol, Beck said. Both drugs are on the federal Drug Enforcement Agency’s watch list though the agency has not yet made them controlled substances, according to Robert Johnson, a DEA investigator.
Johnson said seizures related to use of Soma have increased sixfold since 2000, from 645 to 3,845 in 2008. He also said the American Association of Poison Control Centers reports 78 “toxic deaths” from cardisoprodol medications between 2003 and 2007.
Soma is being sold on the street illegally at $1 to $5 a tablet, according to Chad Platt, a Salt Lake County deputy district attorney.
Legislators aim to outlaw powerful painkiller Soma
By James Thalman
Deseret News
A committee of lawmakers gave unanimous approval today to a draft bill that would make the muscle relaxer/painkiller Soma illegal to possess and a Class B misdemeanor unless a person is under current, verifiable physician’s care.
The abuse of Soma among patients and street sales of the drug has reached “epidemic proportions in Utah,” bill sponsor Rep. Trisha Beck, D-Salt Lake, told members of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Interim Committee.
If the 2010 Legislature approves the bill, it would, in effect, be the state’s official recognition of Utah’s so-called “other drug problem” and would put Utah among 17 states that have adopted stricter regulations on Soma than the federal government. The U.S. Federal Drug Administration has recommended that the drug be similarly classified, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is expected to follow suit.
Lawmakers decided they can’t wait. Expert witnesses told the committee that incidents of the drug factoring into the deaths or major medical problems and in criminal activity increased nearly sixfold — to 3,845 from 645 — in Utah between 2000 to 2008.
The drug can draw as much as $80 per pill on the street, where it is getting notoriety as the thing to take to enhance the euphoria users get from taking other painkillers such as OxyContin and its street version, heroin.
Committee member and pharmacist Rep. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, said that like other powerful narcotics, Soma is habit forming, and those prescribed the drug for pain due to an accident or surgery can become physically and mentally dependent on it. Among those who are trying to prolong or enhance a drug-induced high, use for feelings of euphoria can quickly turn to use just to feel normal, he said.
Death from use of painkillers can be seen practically every day in newspaper obituaries in which cause of death isn’t listed or is said to be due to heart failure.
The heart has often failed because of overdose of prescription painkillers, which depress or sedate the brain’s activity to the point that it simply shuts down the heart, Glen Hanson, a University of Utah professor of pharmacology and toxicology, told committee members.
That’s what happened to Beck’s nephew, prompting her to use his death for good and to try to get ahead of the problem instead of the problem always being ahead of efforts to deal with it.
Committee co-chairman Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, is drafting a bill that sets up a formal substance review board of prescription drugs that would streamline the process for classifying drugs and making their use easier for health and public safety agencies to monitor.
Soma has become a new drug of choice for high school and college students who have told doctors and police officers that they obtain the pills, sometimes by the handful, from medicine cabinets in their homes and their friends’ homes, lawmakers were told.
Prescription drug abuse isn’t just popular among kids, Utah is the nation’s capital for it, Hanson said.
Given the state’s nation-leading low rates of using illicit drugs and alcohol, “Utah’s being right up there leading the pack (in incidents of prescription drug abuse) indicates that something unique is going on here,” Hanson said.
When asked what that might be, he said Utahns are a bit na?e about prescription drugs and tend to lean toward a general attitude that if it’s a prescription drug and from the doctor, it is not as dangerous as a common illicit street drug.
“The fact is that when someone is starting to take physically and mentally abusive drugs,” he said, “the brain responds the same way. and the damage will be as bad whether the compound comes from a pharmaceutical company or off the street.”
e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com
