New restrictions should be applied to widely used narcotic painkillers, because of an alarming increase in addiction and overdose deaths, an FDA Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee (The Panel) recommended. The Drug Safety Advisory Panel voted 19 to 10, recommending that drugs containing hydrocodone should be reclassified as Schedule II controlled substances, together with other narcotic painkillers, including oxycodone. Products containing hydrocodone are currently in Schedule III. The painkiller Vicodin contains hydrocodone...

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