Bloomberg
The high rates of abuse of hydrocodone combination painkillers such as Vicodin show doctors aren’t taking seriously enough the risks of the pills, a top Drug Enforcement Administration official said. “This drug has got a hold of this society and it’s killing us,” Joseph Rannazzisi, deputy assistant administrator in the DEA’s office of diversion control, said at a Food and Drug Administration advisory meeting today in Silver Spring , Maryland . “There’s so many prescriptions out there and I’ll tell you why. The medical community, in my humble opinion, is not taking this drug seriously.”