Drug War, Circa 2005

The DEA’s War Against Pain-treating Drugs

http://deasucks.com/essays/deawar.htm

Roanoke physician Cecil Knox, whose trial ended last week for prescribing OxyContin “outside the scope of legitimate medical practice” is, according to the DEA, a prescription-abusing doctor and a pipeline to drug abusers. But some, including other physicians, claim Knox did not violate medical standards. Instead, he simply cared for the difficult patients many doctors prefer to avoid…

“To be a competent physician,” says Hochman, “every doctor in the United States needs to be adequately trained – and most are not – in the management of intractable pain. Law enforcement and physicians must work together to separate the sheep from the wolves and to identify and prosecute the small number of prescription abusers. Targeting the physician only drives legitimate pain patients into deeper despair, terminal hopelessness and into the black market for relief – as in the case of Rush Limbaugh.”

This is now a dead website.