DEA takes an aggressive stance toward pharmacies trying to dispense addiction medicine
When Martin Njoku saw opioid addiction devastate his West Virginia community, he felt compelled to help. This was the place he’d called home for three decades, where he’d raised his two girls and turned his dream of owning a pharmacy into reality.
In 2016, after flooding displaced people in nearby counties, Njoku began dispensing buprenorphine to them and to local customers at his Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy in Fayette County.
Buprenorphine, a controlled substance sold under the brand names Subutex and Suboxone, is a medication to treat opioid use disorder.
“I thought I was doing what was righteous for people who have an
illness,” Njoku said.
But a few years later, the Drug Enforcement Administration raided Njoku’s pharmacy and accused the facility of contributing to the opioid epidemic rather than curbing it. The agency revoked the pharmacy’s registration to dispense controlled substances, claiming it posed an “imminent danger to public health and safety.”
Although two judges separately ruled in Njoku’s favor, the DEA’s actions effectively shuttered his business.
Drug overdose deaths
The ramifications can be particularly acute in rural areas, where a dearth of addiction treatment providers, lack of transportation, and stigma against these medications already create barriers. If pharmacies decline to provide buprenorphine too, patients will have few options left, Selby said.
The DEA did not respond to requests for comment.
Like many other prescription drugs, buprenorphine can be found illegally on the street.
The ramifications can be particularly acute in rural areas, where a dearth of addiction treatment providers, lack of transportation, and stigma against these medications already create barriers. If pharmacies decline to provide buprenorphine too, patients will have few options left, Selby said.
The DEA did not respond to requests for comment.
Like many other prescription drugs, buprenorphine can be found illegally on the street.
DESCRIPTION
Chemically, buprenorphine HCl is (2S)-2-[17-Cyclopropylmethyl-4,5α-epoxy-3-hydroxy-6-methoxy-6α,14ethano-14α-morphinan-7α-yl]-3,3-dimethylbutan-2-ol hydrochloride. It has the following chemical structure:
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