AN EVIL U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCY

Since the late 1990s, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allied with state and local law enforcement agencies to stamp out abuse of the painkiller OxyContin. Citing rises in emergency room episodes and overdoses associated with the drug (both of which have been roundly disparaged by critics), the DEA insists its "Operation OxyContin" is a necessary reaction to the diversion of the prescription narcotic for street use.

Unfortunately, despite frequent robberies and burglaries of pharmacies, doctors' offices, and warehouses where prescription medications are stored and sold, the DEA has focused a troubling amount of time and resources on the prescriptions issued by practicing physicians. It's easy to see why. Doctors keep records. They pay taxes. They take notes. They're an easier target than common drug dealers. Doctors also often aren't aware of asset forfeiture laws. A physician's considerable assets can be divided up among the various law enforcement agencies investigating him before he's ever brought to trial.

Over the last several years, hundreds of physicians have been put on trial for charges ranging from health insurance fraud to drug distribution, even to manslaughter and murder for over-prescribing prescription narcotics. Many times, investigators seize a doctor's house, office, and bank account, leaving him no resources with which to defend himself. A few doctors have been convicted. Many have been acquitted. Others were left with no choice but to settle.

All of this has been happening just as the field of chronic pain management has made some remarkable progress. The development of opium-based narcotics like OxyContin (also known as "opioids") has been a Godsend to the estimated 30 million Americans who suffer from chronic pain. Opioids are safe, effective, and, contrary to conventional wisdom, very rarely lead to accidental addiction when taken properly. Most of the medical literature puts the rate of such addiction at less than one percent.

The DEA's campaign puts law enforcement officials in the troubling position of determining what is acceptable medical practice in a field that's dynamic, still emerging, and relatively experimental. The very fact that any course of treatment "beyond the normal practice of medicine" can be cause for cops to launch a career-ending investigation is enough in itself to stifle innovation in palliative therapy.

The high-profile arrests and prosecutions of physicians (up to 200 per year, by one estimate) have caused many doctors to under-prescribe or refuse to see new patients. It corrupts the candor necessary for an effective doctor-patient relationship. Many physicians have left palliative therapy for less controversial practice. The Village Voice reports that medical schools are now advising students to avoid pain management practice altogether.

To calm its critics, the DEA commissioned several pain specialists to work with federal officials to put together a set of guidelines for physicians who treat pain with opioids. These guidelines were posted on the agency's website, and most doctors were led to believe that following the recommendations would keep them safe from prosecution. For a short time, experts, doctors, and drug warriors had reached a compromise.

But it didn't last long. Late last year the guidelines mysteriously disappeared from the DEA's website. Their removal coincided with the trial of Virginia pain specialist, Dr. William Hurwitz, whose attorneys had attempted -- and failed -- to admit the guidelines as evidence on the belief that Hurwitz's practice conformed to their parameters. Hurwitz was eventually convicted, and faces a life sentence later this month.

A few weeks after Hurwitz's judge refused to admit the guidelines as evidence, the DEA renounced the contents of the brochure, and in a brief explanatory note made clear that the agency wasn't bound by any standards or practices when it came to determining what physicians it would investigate.

More here

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation.

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