Two Democratic lawmakers are pushing the Drug Enforcement Administration to take a more lax approach to regulating buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction.
“Bupe,” also known by the brand name Suboxone, is one of just two medications currently approved to treat opioid cravings and withdrawal. And though it is associated with a 38% reduction in risk of opioid death, it remains stigmatized because it is chemically an opioid — and, accordingly, highly scrutinized by the DEA.
But a new legislative proposal introduced this week by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) would force the federal government’s drug police to back off from monitoring buprenorphine the same way it monitors more potent prescription painkillers.
“We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackle this epidemic with the urgency it demands, which includes eliminating barriers that providers and patients face in accessing life-saving medication,” Heinrich said in a statement. “My legislation aims to change reporting requirements for buprenorphine, ensuring that patients receive timely and effective treatment for opioid use disorder. This will help save lives and help New Mexicans get the care they need.”
The legislation is called the Broadening Utilization of Proven and Effective Treatment for Recovery Act — the “BUPE Act,” for short. It requires the DEA administrator to exempt buprenorphine from the agency’s Suspicious Order Reporting System, which the agency created in 2019 to combat the oversupply of painkillers behind the first wave of the opioid epidemic.
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