PAIN RELIEF FROM STATUTE

Re your editorial of July 9 "Pain and punishment":

It will work against patients; not "it could" work.

As long as Florida's so-called "trafficking" statute is on the books,
pain patients will continue to be branded as felons. Their doctors
even more so, who will abandon their patients rather than risk an
investigation for prescribing "too much." The statute provides a
25-year mandatory minimum sentence for the illegal possession of a
mere handful of pills. There is no way for the doctor to know whether
the patient is addicted to the drug or to pain relief, outside of a
clinical setting, but we let prosecutors decide.

The new database only makes it more efficient to find doctors who
prescribe "too much" and patients who "exhibit drug-seeking behavior"
to get relief after their doctor abandons them.

Floridians should be ashamed of their drug-trafficking statute.

JOHN CHASE

Palm Harbor