Bill to Ease Access to Drugs for Pain Gains
By CARL INGRAM, Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTOA bill that would make highly restricted narcotics
more available to patients with severe and
intractable pain appeared headed toward approval Tuesday in the
Assembly.
Supporters of the bill (SB 402) said it offered help and comfort
to patients who in some cases have given up hope and considered
suicide.
The bill, approved earlier by the Senate, received a unanimous
vote on a preliminary roll call of the Assembly Health Committee,
but a final vote was delayed so more members could be recorded.
Forest Tennant, a West Covina physician, said enactment of the
bill amid the current national "righttodie" debate would show that
California would rather "take care of the sick, the suffering and the
dying than go the suicide route."
The bill, sponsored by Tennant and backed by the California
Medical Assn., would require doctors to advise patients who suffer
from "severe, chronic [and] intractable" pain that powerful narcotics
are legally available that could grant them relief.
Before the hearing, Tennant and Sen. Leroy Greene
(DCarmichael), the bill's author, told a news conference that many
physicians refuse to prescribe these legal medications for patients
who suffer from seemingly untreatable pain. Included are such
potent painkillers as Percodan, Demerol and Dilaudid, whose use is
closely monitored by the state Medical Board and the Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement.
Doctors may refuse to prescribe these drugs in the large
quantities needed for severe pain relief because they fear
prosecution from state authorities for overprescribing a controlled
substance, Greene said. Additionally, many doctors are
philosophically opposed to narcotics because they can create
dependency, Tennant said.
Tennant and Harvey Rose, a Sacramento physician, said
physicians also fear being sued for medical malpractice by patients
who misuse the drugs.
But Greene said a law mandating that physicians inform their
patients that such painkillers are available as an option would break
down the doctors' resistance. The bill provides that while a patient's
physician would not be required to approve the drug treatment, the
patient could seek out a doctor who would.
Under the proposed "Pain Patient's Bill of Rights," unlimited
quantities of the narcotic medications could be prescribed within the
discretionary bounds of "good medicine."
Although no witness spoke in opposition to the bill Tuesday,
critics have argued that options to expanded access to narcotics are
available. These include surgery, implantation in the body of devices
such as morphine pumps, and nonsurgical procedures.
They also have argued that expanded access to the use of
narcotics will make patients dependent on these medications and
create new drug addicts.
But Greene asserted that some forms of dependency are good
for everybodysuch as relying on wristwatches for time or
eyeglasses for vision.
"Dependency is a matter to be desired if you are in endless
pain," Greene said. Making narcotics more accessible would enable
people immobilized by pain to achieve a higher quality of life and
return to their jobs, he said.

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