New Painkiller a Danger: 28 A-G’s

 DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is one of 28 state chief legal officers to warn the Food and Drug Administration that a new, powerful painkiller approved in October is going to result in more prescription
drug abuse.

 
The new medication called Zohydro is a narcotic painkiller that will come in doses five to 10 times more powerful than traditional hydrocodone products such as Vicodin.
 
Miller and the other attorneys general say it doesn’t make sense that the FDA would approve such a potent narcotic without requiring it to be made in a form that discourages abuse.   They say it could be formulated in a gel-like consistency that would discourage abusers from chewing the pills or crushing them for snorting or injecting.
 

The medication is expected to be available next year.