DEA'S REVERSAL SANE AND HUMANE

No, you're not hallucinating. The Drug Enforcement Administration has
scrapped a two-year-old policy that frightened doctors and may have
left some patients in needless pain.

The policy was supposed to prevent morphine-based painkillers from
being abused or sold. It prohibited doctors from prescribing more than
a 30 days' supply, even for chronically ill patients.

As many doctors and patients argued, banning that common and
convenient practice went too far.

Some patients were asked to return to their doctors' offices every
month - not for medical reasons, but to keep the feds off the doctor's
back.

Physicians, particularly those who specialize in treating severe pain,
were well aware that some of their colleagues had been prosecuted.
They complained to the DEA that they were afraid to give patients the
relief they needed.

To its credit, the DEA listened to those pleas, re-examined the issue
and changed its mind. Once again, doctors can give patients three
30-day prescriptions for painkillers, two of them dated in the future.

The DEA was quick to say that it will continue to go after doctors who
prescribe such drugs if they aren't medically justified.

Fine.

But it's one thing to prescribe powerful narcotics promiscuously. It's
quite another to offer relief to people who are suffering.