Here’s one small step in the battle against the opioid problem- West Virginia reported that the state’s pharmacies dispensed 13 million fewer hydrocodone drug prescriptions last year.

Hydrocodones, like Vicodin, were moved from being labeled schedule III to schedule II drugs last year. The move meant there are now more restrictions placed on these kinds of drugs, requiring stricter prescriptions and more frequent visits to a doctor in order to get a refill. The government hoped that the move would mean fewer and shorter prescriptions were written out, and there would be less chance for abuse by patients. In West Virginia, a state with a high rate of hydrocodone prescriptions and a high rate of overdose deaths, it appears that that relabeling move and other efforts have helped to curb the prevalence of opioids. West Virginia is one of a handful of states that do not allow nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants to prescribe Schedule II drugs.

West Virginia has a big problem with painkiller abuse, and hydrocodone painkillers are their most popular type. In 2011 the state dispensed 99.6 million doses but they have been dropping every year by them. Last year 63 million doses were prescribed, and while that is still a lot, it is significantly lower than just a few years ago. With the reclassification physicians still write prescriptions, but they write them for fewer pills at a time. Patients now have to come back to the office more often to get refills, which allows doctors to keep better track of their progress and potentially even start a plan to wean them off painkillers.

“Instead of the doctor writing a prescription and giving the patient 180 to 240 pills all at once, they’re making them come back every couple of weeks,” said Mike Goff who is an administrator at the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy.

If physicians are writing out prescriptions with fewer doses, there is less chance a patient will have extra that they could potentially misuse themselves, or give/sell extras to those that may not necessarily need such strong painkillers for medical purposes. Drug take-back programs at police stations also allow patients with extra medications to dispense of them in a safe and legal way.

The move to label hydrocodone a schedule II drug looks like it helped curb prescriptions of it beyond just West Virginia, as there were 1.1 billion less hydrocodone pills dispensed last year nationwide. Oxycodone painkillers have not seen such a decline though they are also labeled as Schedule II. Schedule II drugs are labeled as such when the drug has a high potential for abuse and dependence.

The state has also started to shut down pill mill types of clinics and has passed legislation to close loopholes that these clinics used to get around inspections and other regulations. The state has seen an uptick in tramodal prescriptions, which is another painkiller but it is labeled Schedule IV so it is considered a less dangerous drug by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Goff says that even if more prescriptions are being written for tramodal, it means they are replacing the more dangerous and addictive drugs.