PAIN FROM A RULE

One would think, on hearing about a new drug policy initiative, that
grandmas in droves are selling their pain pills to the motorcycle outlaw
across town. Complaints aren't pouring in to that effect, yet the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration has reasserted a rule requiring pain
sufferers to be seen by their doctors monthly in order to get the next
30-day supply of narcotic medications that treat chronic pain. The move may
be well-meaning, but it amounts to bureaucratic overreach.

The Bush administration has ordered a return to enforcing strictly a law
that limits distribution of narcotic medicines. For years the DEA bent
enough to let doctors give patients -- those whose conditions are stable
and whose pain is well-managed -- several months' supplies of morphine,
OxyContin or other narcotics. The sensible safety valve was that doctors
wrote orders for supplies for several months, but dated them so that
patients couldn't pick up more than a 30-day supply at a time.

The new, or revived, rules say patients must see their doctors every month
to receive the next month's supply. Of course, they must pay for the
appointment. That's typically an unnecessary expense.

It's true that for older sufferers and disabled ones -- who no doubt make
up a disproportionate number of people with debilitating arthritis, nerve
damage and other chronic pain -- the doctor visits are paid for by Medicare
or Medicaid. But Congress and the states are struggling to find enough
money to fund both of those programs. For old and young, the new rule means
clogging up doctors' offices, adding another burden on the system.

Narcotics abuse is serious, and abusers are adept at gaming the rules. But
those who use the drugs for pain don't tend to become addicts, researchers
say. Conversely, pain management is a serious quality-of-life issue with
which the government needs to cooperate.

This is a case where the Bush administration ought to exercise some common
sense. The medical community could help if it spoke with one voice to
oppose the new regulation. And Congress should rewrite the original law to
allow doctors to treat pain sufferers in obvious need of medication in the
least painful way.