Tweet - "Every day, more than 100 Americans die from an opioid overdose. While we know that there are legitimate uses for opioid painkillers, we also know that these dangerous pills are being over-produced, over-prescribed, and over-dispensed."

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"Every day, more than 100 Americans die from an opioid overdose. While we know that there are legitimate uses for opioid painkillers, we also know that these dangerous pills are being over-produced, over-prescribed, and over-dispensed."

"DEA approved significant increases in aggregate opioid production quotas between 1993 and 2015, including a 39-fold increase for oxycodone and a 12-fold increase for hydrocodone."

"Such increases occurred largely because current law directs DEA to only consider certain factors when setting quotas--like past sales and estimated demand--but not other factors such as the impact of such opioid production on diversion, abuse rates, or overdose deaths."

"14 billion opioid doses are put on the market each year--far more than necessary under current medical guidelines and enough for every adult American to have their own bottle of addictive painkillers."

"DEA plays an important gatekeeper role over the volume of opioids that can be produced each year. And while DEA has taken recent steps to lower opioid quotas, their ability to do so is limited."

"Opioid quota reform is needed so DEA can take important factors like diversion and abuse into account when setting quotas, rather than only chasing the downstream consequences of this crisis."

@SenatorDurbin

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