FALLS TOWNSHIP, Pa. - A Bucks County community in the throes of the opioid epidemic is questioning a new proposal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would loosen guidelines on prescribing powerful prescription drugs. "If the last 20 years tells us anything the medical community underestimated how addictive these drugs were going to be," Falls Township Police Department Chief Nelson Whitney said.
The CDC's previous guidance, issued six years ago, helped slow the kind of prescribing that ignited the worst overdose epidemic in U.S.
history. But it also caused some doctors to become too quick to cut off patients taking prescription painkillers and too strict in keeping the drugs from patients who might benefit, CDC officials said.The proposed changes, contained in a 229-page draft update in the Federal Register, would roll back some suggested limits on the drugs.
Their publication opens a 60-day public comment period. The CDC will consider comments before finalizing the updated guidance.A Bucks County community is questioning why the CDC would propose looser restrictions on powerful prescription drugs as the opioid epidemic continues to run rampant in Philadelphia and its suburbs.