Prescription drug deaths: Bill would tighten rules on hydrocodone

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Taking aim at “America’s most abused narcotic,” congressional lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday that would place tighter restrictions on the painkiller hydrocodone, which is a key contributor to the nation’s prescription drug death epidemic.

Sold under the brand names Vicodin, Norco and Lortab, hydrocodone-based medications “are some of the most potent and addictive narcotics on the market,” U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said in a statement.

Buchanan is one of four lawmakers -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- who introduced the Safe Prescribing Act of 2013. The unusual display of bipartisan support extended to more than 40 additional members of Congress from both parties who signed on as co-sponsors.

TIMES INVESTIGATION: Prescription drugs

The proposed law would place medications containing hydrocodone in the same category as OxyContin, another opiate-based painkiller so potent and addictive that it is sometimes referred to as synthetic heroin.

If enacted, patients would be able to get fewer hydrocodone pills at one time, and there would be more restrictions on refills. In addition, pharmacies would have to follow stricter procedures for handling and storing the drug.

The restrictions follow those recommended by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel in January. Prescription drugs -- primarily narcotic painkillers such as hydrocodone -- cause or contribute to more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. As a result, drug fatalities have surpassed deaths from motor vehicle crashes, long the leading cause of accidental death in this country.

A Los Angeles Times analysis of 3,733 prescription drug-related fatalities in Southern California from 2006 to 2011 found that hydrocodone was involved in 945 of the deaths, more than any other prescription medication.

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-- Scott Glover and Lisa Girion