INFORMATION AND SUPPORT
The World of
Chronic Pain

More than 125 million Amercians are suffering.

Diseases &
Conditions

These conditions can cause a world of pain.

Medications
& Treatment

Be sure you know the cautions and side effects.

Help &
Support

Finding help is not always simple for those in pain.

Safety &
Prevention

These tips can help prevent a lifetime of pain.

News &
Issues

Up-to-date news on pain-related issues.

The Drug Enforcement Agency

The Drug Enforcement Agency is anathema to both doctors and patients when it comes to chronic pain. DEA testimony boasts that in 1995 and 1996, 900 physicians were prosecuted and lost their narcotics licenses for attempting to treat chronic pain with appropriate, legal narcotics. Some of these physicians no doubt were dispensing narcotics incorrectly; our own experience has taught us this. The others were simply persecuted by the DEA.

This represents an incidence of almost 1 per every 300 U.S. physicians.

Physicians are easy targets for the DEA, much safer than going after armed Columbian drug dealers. This in itself represents a crime against humanity but the DEA marches on. Yes there are physicians who are indiscriminate in the prescribing of narcotics, but what about the tens of thousands of others who are careful in their decisions, substantiate every prescription, and keep staggeringly precise records?

This scares physicians choosing their field of practice into choosing a safer route, thus reducing the number of treating pain physicians more as those in the practice retire, die, and move on to research or safer fields.

Thus people in chronic pain are afraid to seek treatment and physicians are afraid to give it.

On their "Drugs of Concern" list, oxycontin is ranked above LSD, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, other club drugs, GHB/GHS!

Most physicians already tend to prefer cases that are black and white. A patient presents with a problem, a medication or procedure is utilized, and the patient is cured. The DEA makes it easy for them to make that decision in choosing their field of practice, thus contributing to the shortage of pain specialists and the wariness of existing pain physicians to prescribe effective pain medications.