ADDICTS GET DRUGS, TRUE SUFFERERS DON'T

How do drug dealers and drug addicts procure the medication OxyContin?
How do they obtain it without a prescription and from whom, and how do
they obtain it so easily when a person who needs it for extreme and
24/7 pain cannot?

What has happened to the Hippocratic Oath that physicians take when
they become a doctor? When did it go from "helping and healing the
sick" to protecting their backside from malpractice suits? I can
certainly sympathize with them when the very people they assist turn
around and - with the help of some unscrupulous attorney - give them
the opportunity to sue for any small or big thing that may or may not
go wrong with them. However, we are not all in that category.

I am a 67-year-old woman who suffers from extreme and chronic back
pain due to failed back surgery ... No, I did not sue the doctor who
performed the surgery. I cannot find a doctor in the Beckley area who
will even make an appointment to see me. I am not an addict, just a
woman in great pain who would like to visit with her children and
cannot stay any longer than my prescription lasts. It is
heart-breaking for me, my children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren when we tell them Grandma has to leave because she
cannot get her medication.

To add insult to injury, my husband asked one clinic what he was
supposed to do, as I was in great pain and needed my prescription. The
reply to this was a very callous, "You can put her out in the road and
let her die."

Mary A. Miller

Minneola, Fla.