Comments about ‘Utah Legislature: Committee approves reclassification of Soma’

What is the significance of this change? What does being reclassified mean? Where can I learn about the classification system?

I am a licensed, working Pharmacist here in Utah. This change has been long over due. I have seen people who have had their life taken over by Soma.
It is way over used and over prescribed. This bill is a good needed, step forward.

The classification system rates certain drugs as to how additive they are. THe system uses a C1 to C5. the C1s are all the illegal stuff. THe C2's are the most additive and include Oxycontin, Percocet, Ritalin, Methamphetime etc. THe C5 is the least additive. Making Soma a C4 would put it into the same class as drugs like Valium, Xanax and most sleeping pills. However most prescription drugs on not classified but just legend. That is what soma was been in the past.How this helps DN Readers. Sign me Utah Pharmacist 1:58

To Utah Pharmacist: Thanks

The real problem may be with how Soma is prescribed rather than that it is available through a prescription. I have used Soma for about three years in combination with Lortab to deal with daily migraines. Recently I was off of both medications for 4 months while trying to find the cause of my pain, but nothing helped with the pain, and I wasn't addicted (no withdrawal symptoms). I would suspect addiction could only come with much higher usage than I use because I use only half to one pill of each to take off the edge of the pain rather than dosing heavily all the time. Physician to patient education and monitoring seems like a better choice than legislation, which will only serve for more lawsuits and increase the prison population. The medication is only available through a prescription unless it somehow hits the streets, but I'm not a fan of bolstering legislation with the only end game being to line the pockets of more attorneys, which this seems to support. Instead, get the word out through the AMA and gain support there.

Legislating everything is not a good long-term solution to anything.