Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jul 2014
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2014 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/submit/
Website: http://tbo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Robert B. Beatty
Page A12

NO HELP FOR THE PAIN

Regarding "Follow Florida's painkiller example" (Washington Post, 
Other Views, July 8):

The Post's one-sided, one-dimensional exalting over the state of 
Florida's shutdown of so-called "pill mills" and doctors accused of 
over-prescribing painkillers overlooks another side of the issue that 
it and anti-drug crusaders are either ignorant of or choose to 
ignore. My wife suffers from severe and chronic pain caused by 
degenerative arthritis of her hips. Hip replacement surgery will 
hopefully alleviate the pain. In the meantime, she's in constant, 
unremitting pain from the damage to her hips. High concentration 
doses of Vicodin or similar pain-control medication used to be able 
to control her pain.

But now, under the current anti-drug absolutism, no doctor will 
prescribe anything approaching an effective pain reducer because 
they're running scared of being accused of operating a pill mill, 
having their clinic closed down and being arrested as a drug dealer.

The only things my wife's doctors will prescribe for relief of her 
pain have about as much pain-killing power as cotton candy.

Over-the-counter pain medications are no more effective than low-dose 
aspirin. If any of them actually worked as a pain killer, the 
government would probably order it yanked off the shelf at light speed.

The robust anti-drug zealots of the FDA are probably all healthy 
individuals who have never had a day of pain in their lives. They 
simply can't relate to pain in others. They fear one minute of 
addiction in others far more than they fear a lifetime of pain in 
others. To them, one would-be hedonist or one kid popping one pill is 
more harmful than any amount of endless pain in any number of pain sufferers.

Of course we don't want drug dealers selling prescription medications 
to kids. But that's already illegal.

Careful delineation is needed to distinguish would-be druggies from 
legitimate pain sufferers. But sometimes that can take work to do.

The anti-drug absolutists don't seem to want to do the work. They 
have a simplistic answer to the problem: effectively ban the 
existence of any drug remotely capable of being addictive.

In the process, legitimate pain sufferers are left with no effective 
pain relief medication and no options other than to grit their teeth 
and bear the pain. In the meantime, I'm left hearing my wife cry in 
pain anytime she tries to move her hips or legs.

Pain sufferers like my wife are not trying to get high. They're 
trying to get pain free.

Some reasonable balance is needed between drug enforcement and pain 
relief. The "innocent until proven guilty" principle should apply 
here. Legitimate pain victims with affidavits from their doctor 
should be considered to be so unless it is conclusively shown that 
they're just hedonists wanting to abuse prescription medications. The 
anti-drug zealots should be forced to prove that the persons in 
question are liars who want to abuse drugs.

Pain is real. People in pain should be given the nod. Effective pain 
killers should be allowed to exist.

Robert B. Beatty

Tampa
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