MISGUIDED DEA'S WITCH HUNT LEAVES PATIENTS HURTING

Chronic pain management is officially part of the war on
drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department have
had such bad results with controlling the illegal importation and use
of heroin and cocaine that both departments have turned their focus on
pain-management clinics to get some "success" stories.

With a growing population of people suffering from severe chronic
pain, prescribing strong opiates such as Oxycontin, have risen.
Oxycontin, a Schedule II drug, gives up to 12 hours of time released
pain control.

But it has also become the favorite drug of choice for illegal sale on
the streets. Why? If you crush the pill, the user gets an
instantaneous high similar to heroin - without using a needle. Since
it's a legal prescription drug, finding an unscrupulous doctor is much
easier than finding a heroin dealer.

This has resulted in a war between physicians, the DEA and patients
who truly need strong medication. The DEA doesn't care about the
enormous impact they are having on the good doctors and patients who
follow the law. The DEA is watching pain-management clinics, mostly
those owned or operated by minorities, to find a rotten apple in the
barrel.

But if you're rich, like conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh or
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, there's no need to
go through the "prove it" gauntlet. All they have to do is lay out the
cash. Only the poor have to prove the pain.

Doctors have had to find a way to demonstrate to the DEA that patients
are not selling their prescriptions on the streets. Some clinics have
devised a prescription contract that the patient and physician must
sign outlining how the patient will receive the medications they need.

Many physicians have stopped prescribing opiates, sending patients to
pain-management clinics that are more expensive. Pain-management
clinics must prove what treatments have been tried and failed by
ordering several tests, which can take as long as six months before
they conclude how severe the patient's pain is.

Federal law classifies most opioids as Schedule II drugs, the same
classification given to cocaine and heroin, despite a growing body of
opinion among the medical community that opioids should not be
classified with these substances.

One of the DEA'S few Congressional critics is libertarian Republican
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. "Unfortunately, patients often must consume
very large amounts of opioids to obtain long-term relief. Some
prescriptions may be for hundreds of pills and last only a month. A
prescription this large may appear suspicious.

"But according to many pain-management specialists, it is medically
necessary in many cases to prescribe a large number of pills to
effectively treat chronic pain. However, zealous prosecutors show no
interest in learning the basic facts of pain management."

The war on drugs has failed. It's time to admit it and move on - to
rewriting drug laws that are realistic and effective.