Legislators aim to outlaw powerful painkiller Soma

A committee of lawmakers gave unanimous approval Wednesday to a draft bill that would make the muscle relaxer/painkiller Soma illegal to possess and a Class B misdemeanor unless a person is under current, verifiable physician's care.

The abuse of Soma among patients and street sales of the drug have reached "epidemic proportions in Utah," bill sponsor Rep. Trisha Beck, D-Salt Lake, told members of the Legislature's Health and Human Services Interim Committee.

If the 2010 Legislature approves the bill, it would, in effect, be the state's official recognition of Utah's so-called "other drug problem" and would put Utah among 17 states that have adopted stricter regulations on Soma than the federal government. The U.S. Federal Drug Administration has recommended that the drug be similarly classified, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is expected to follow suit.

Lawmakers decided they can't wait. Expert witnesses told the committee that incidents of the drug factoring into the deaths or major medical problems and in criminal activity increased nearly sixfold — to 3,845 from 645 — in Utah between 2000 to 2008.

The drug can draw as much as $80 per pill on the street, where it is getting notoriety as the thing to take to enhance the euphoria users get from taking other painkillers such as OxyContin and its street version, heroin.

Committee member and pharmacist Rep. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, said that like other powerful narcotics, Soma is habit forming, and those prescribed the drug for pain due to an accident or surgery can become physically and mentally dependent on it. Among those who are trying to prolong or enhance a drug-induced high, use for feelings of euphoria can quickly turn to use just to feel normal, he said.

Death from use of painkillers can be seen practically every day in newspaper obituaries in which cause of death isn't listed or is said to be due to heart failure.

The heart has often failed because of overdose of prescription painkillers, which depress or sedate the brain's activity to the point that it simply shuts down the heart, Glen Hanson, a University of Utah professor of pharmacology and toxicology, told committee members.

That's what happened to Beck's nephew, prompting her to use his death for good and to try to get ahead of the problem instead of the problem always being ahead of efforts to deal with it.

Committee co-chairman Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, is drafting a bill that sets up a formal substance-review board of prescription drugs that would streamline the process for classifying drugs and making their use easier for health and public-safety agencies to monitor.