MISGUIDED MISSION

Editor -- It is certainly good news that patients in agony will now receive
appropriate relief for their pain. However, your Dec. 27 editorial
studiously neglects the true cause for generations of deliberate
under-treatment of pain. The blame belongs squarely on the heads of lunatic
drug crusaders who have targeted physicians and their patients as criminals
for the legitimate use of narcotics for more than 80 years.

Thousands of doctors who tried to treat chronic pain according to medical,
humanitarian and scientific guidelines have been prosecuted, convicted and
sent to prison by those chanting "zero-tolerance" nonsense. The Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations should be applauded
for taking a stand against the medical malpractice of under-treating pain
promoted by America's drug warriors.

REDFORD GIVENS
San Francisco.