Pubdate: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 Source: Charleston Gazette (WV) Copyright: 2005 Charleston Gazette Contact: http://www.wvgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77 Note: Does not print out of town letters. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) PAIN CAN BE SUBDUED Sadly, numerous injured or sick Americans suffer severe pain. Sadly, many terminal patients are wracked by agony. Potent painkillers are available to ease this suffering -- but America's hysteria over narcotics interferes with their care. Conservative politicians try to prevent dying people from using marijuana medically to soothe their distress. And many doctors hesitate to prescribe adequate doses of palliatives such as OxyContin because they fear that federal drug agents may file criminal charges against them. It's true that a few patients resell their prescription painkillers as street drugs. And it may be true that an extremely rare few physicians are so hard up for income that they cooperate with this illicit traffic. But this abuse is small, compared to the giant number of patients who use painkillers correctly. Thirty state attorneys general (not including West Virginia's) recently asked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to be less rigid in dealing with doctors who prescribe painkillers. For terminal patients, they wrote to the DEA, "adequate pain management is often difficult to obtain. One key contributor to this problem is that many physicians fear investigations and enforcement actions if they prescribe adequate levels of opioids or have many patients with prescriptions for pain medications." This is a cruel situation. Surely, the DEA can show mercy to the sickest Americans by letting doctors treat them properly. We agree with the conclusion of the attorneys general: "What has changed during the past century, and is expected to continue to change in the future, is that improvements in health sciences have not only allowed people to live longer, but have also prolonged the process of dying for most people in the United States. Not only are more people suffering from chronic diseases than in the past, when death was earlier and quicker, but many are dying following prolonged suffering in pain.... These realities make it imperative that DEA consider the impact of its policies on the legitimate treatment of pain." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom