News
House strips muscle relaxer from drug bill
A House panel today denied an effort to place an often abused muscle relaxant on the state's controlled substance list.
The bill sponsored by Rep. David Shepard, D-Dickson, was amended in the House Judiciary Committee to keep carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant typically sold as the brand drug Soma, off a list of drugs that would be considered controlled substances in Tennessee.
The amendment removing carisoprodol from the list was sponsored by Rep. Frank Buck, D-Dowellton, who argued that the effort sought to bypas state rules for controlling drugs.
Buck said unlike other drugs targeted by the bill, carisoprodol had not gone through either state or federal procedures for making it a controlled substance. Carisoprodol is not subject to heightened regulations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"You are just trying to go around the system, and that's what bothers me," said Buck. "And when we do that, we get into trouble."
T.J. Jordan, a special agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, told the committee that the muscle relaxant is often combined with other prescription drugs to give users a heroin-like effect.
"We see it as a significant problem," said Jordan. "It's easily accessible, it's commonly over-prescribed."
House Judiciary Chairman Rob Briley said he had found cases where Tennesseans had already been charged with illegal possession of carisoprodol, leading him to wonder whether law enforcement may be trying to cover their tracks by now making the drug illegal.
Shepard and Jordan said they had no knowledge of people being charged with possession of the drug.
Rep. Eddie Bass, D-Prospect, said Tennessee shouldn't necessarily wait for the FDA to change the rule on the drug.