IV Painkillers Pinched in Opioid Crackdown, Hospitals Warn DEA (1)

Intravenous painkillers are running short during the pandemic in part because of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s opioid production restrictions, one of the biggest hospital policy groups in the U.S. said.

The DEA has slashed the amount opioid producers can manufacture over the last couple of years as part of the federal government’s response to the opioid epidemic. It’s made prescription opioids harder for everyone to get, including hospitals.

Shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the DEA to increase the amount of opioids companies can produce this year by 15%, but the agency still lumps more commonly abused tablets together ...