FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
March 11, 2013
For More Information, contact:
Luther Strange
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Alabama Attorney General
Page 1 of 1
AG STRANGE LEADS NATIONAL EFFORT ASKING FDA
TO MAKE GENERIC PAIN PILLS HARDER TO ABUSE
(MONTGOMERY) – Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is leading an effort to make
generic pain medicines more resistant to abuse. Attorney General Strange, along with North
Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, co-sponsored a letter sent today to the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration that was also signed by 46 other state and territorial attorneys general.
The Attorneys General are urging the FDA to adopt standards requiring manufacturers
and marketers of generic prescription painkillers to develop tamper- and abuse-resistant
versions of their products.
“Adding new physical and chemical features to prescription opioids to deter abuse
could reduce misuse of these drugs and the sometimes deadly consequences. These products
can be part of a comprehensive approach which should include prevention, interdiction,
prosecution and substance-abuse treatment,” the letter states.
Prescription drug abuse is on the rise across the country, and prescription pain relievers
are among the most commonly abused drugs. Name-brand versions of painkillers such as
OxyContin have taken steps to make it more difficult to abuse their drugs, for example by
making it harder to crush pills which abusers do in order to inject or snort the drug.
“In our states, nonmedical users are shifting away from the new tamper-resistant
formulations to non-tamper-resistant formulations of other opioids as well as to illegal drugs.
There is great concern in our law enforcement community that many non-tamper-resistant
products are available for abuse when only a few products have been formulated with tamper-
resistant features,” the attorneys general wrote in their letter to the FDA.
When abused or used incorrectly, prescription drugs can be deadly. Fatal drug
overdoses are now the leading cause of death due to unintentional injury in the United States
exceeding even motor vehicle deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Attorneys general from the following states and territories signed onto the letter:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam,
Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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501 Washington Avenue Montgomery, AL 36104 (334) 242-7300
www.ago.state.al.us
