DEA eases painkiller prescription rules

The DEA has revised a policy that pain doctors say was limiting how well they could care for their patients. Two years ago, the DEA enacted a rule that made it illegal for doctors to write multi-month prescriptions for patients in need of constant morphine-based painkillers. The agency claimed that the practice was unnecessary and added to the likelihood that people would abuse prescription painkillers. Doctors were irked by the change and many patients had to come in for unnecessary monthly appointments, just so that the doctors could prescribe them pills without getting in trouble. Yesterday, DEA Administrator Karen Tandy repealed the rule, saying the DEA has gone too far in interfering with doctors' ability to treat patients. The agency proposes that physicians now be allowed to write 90-day prescriptions for morphine-based painkillers.

For more on the DEA's change of heart:
- read the article from The Washington Post

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