U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell recently contacted the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on behalf of Kentucky law enforcement and health care providers and expressed his concern about generic versions of long-release opiates coming to market without the tamper-resistant technology.

Senator McConnell stated long-release opiates are particularly potent and were subject to rampant drug abuse prior to the deployment of tamper-resistant technologies.

McConnell added that these technologies prevent addicts from destroying the time release mechanism of the extended release opiates in order for the user to achieve an immediate heroin-like high.

However, generic versions of the same drugs lack the tamper-resistant formulations and are expected to hit the market in early 2013 with Senator McConnell saying a pro-active approach on matter is essential in order to continue efforts in prescription drug abuse.

Senator McConnell wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to press the agency to remove generic drugs from the market that lacks a safety mechanism.

In addition to writing FDA Commissioner Hamburg, Senator McConnell also forwarded the letters he received from the Kentucky organizations to the FDA and asked for a prompt review and response.
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