PAIN RELIEF NETWORK

After reading an editorial in the Mobile Register recently and an excellent
commentary by Mark Kaufman, a Washington Post staff writer, I became very
concerned about the Justice Department's and the Drug Enforcement
Administration's persecution of pain specialists. Some examples may suffice
to explain the irresponsible actions of law enforcement agencies.

The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration have
harassed and persecuted pain-specialist doctors for prescribing OxyContin
and Lortab. Jeri Hassman, a Tucson pain doctor, was arrested and put in jail
for successfully treating patients for chronic pain.

Dr. Hassman has sophisticated devices to treat patients' damaged muscles and
bones, but she realizes that effective prescription narcotics are the only
way to treat some chronic pain sufferers.

Another example was the arrest and indictment of Dr. William E. Huritz,
another successful physician. Attorney General John Ashcroft stated that the
arrest demonstrated "our commitment to bring justice to all those who
traffic in this very dangerous drug" (OxyContin).

The main point is that successful doctors will have a thriving business, and
it is not the function of the government to harass those who have compassion
for their suffering patients. OxyContin and Lortab are legal medicines to
treat chronic pain.

Fortunately, the Pain Relief Network is an organization of doctors,
pharmacists and other medical personnel to fight the sadistic practice of
persecuting pain specialists and, indirectly, their patients. Their motto
is, "Standing up for patients in pain, and the physicians who treat them."

Siobhan Reynolds, the executive director of the Pain Relief Network, has
this statement: "The Founding Fathers wisely limited federal power,
recognizing that a concentration of power at the federal level will lead to
abuses. Our nation's failure to abide by this strict separation of federal
and state power in the critically sensitive area of the regulation of
medicine has led to a public health catastrophe in pain care."

Reynolds notes that a severe problem has arisen. The DEA reported that more
than 400 doctors were prosecuted in 2002. Reynolds also observed, "American
citizens, as a result, by the thousands are being forced into suicide by
untreated pain."

The treatment of pain is very personal with me. My wife has fibromyalgia and
myofacial pain syndrome. She is taking OxyContin and Lortab, and without
these drugs her life would be pure hell. Her specialist has successfully
diagnosed her condition, and he has successfully treated her.

That Attorney General Ashcroft and the DEA have prosecuted and persecuted
successful pain specialists reveals either a totalitarian and utopian power
lust, or reveals that they have sadistic minds regarding pain relief.

The doctor-patient relationship should be one of the most private and sacred
in a civilized society. Doctors should concern themselves with the care of
their patients. If they have to worry about Ashcroft and the DEA ruining
their careers and incarcerating them, they and their patients will suffer.

JOHN EGOLF

Monroeville