ATTACK ON DOCTORS PART OF DEA CRUSADE

This is in regards to the July 24 story headlined: "Patients struggle to
find new care."

There's no end to the needless troubles America's lunatic drug crusade
causes. Today it's patients who can no longer find a doctor to prescribe
the drugs they need to relieve their agony. Never mind the horrific
suffering our delirious drug warriors cause; they are working to "save
people from themselves" and collateral damage is irrelevant.

When the drug warriors assault doctors for prescribing adequate pain
relief, they stand in direct opposition to the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' (JCAHO) standard of pain care
which calls for maximum relief of suffering.

America's misguided drug prohibitionists refuse to acknowledge that
unrelieved pain has enormous physiological and psychological effects on
patients despite research clearly showing that unrelieved suffering slows
recovery, creates extra burdens for patients and their families and adds
costs to the health care system.

Standards for pain management were established because DEA meddling causes
patient suffering to be ignored and under-treated in the United States
because physicians fear prosecution for overprescribing pain medications.

The DEA creates absurd lies about patient addiction to opiate-like drugs in
an effort to discredit proper medical care, but those taking the most
powerful opiates for pain, such as morphine, rarely become addicted to
these drugs.

Kentucky should follow the lead of 19 states that have adopted laws
protecting physicians from prosecution for overprescribing narcotics, so
long as the prescription is intended for pain relief.

DEA and FBI attacks on suffering patients and their doctors are unconscionable.

Redford Givens, San Francisco