Inflicting More Pain

by Liberty and Power

When government began controlling narcotics nearly 90 years ago, it assured Americans it would never interfere with the practice of medicine.

Chalk up another in a long series of lies by the state. In theory government serves the people. In practice it does something else entirely.

The crusade to determine what drugs we can and cannot use, and under what conditions, couldn't help but affect medical practice. Someone who wanted a drug controlled by the state had two ways to obtain it: he could go into the black market or go to a doctor. If the drug-enforcement agencies weren’t prepared to watch the doctors, how effective could the anti-drug policy be? So as time went on, they did watch the doctors -- and prosecuted them, ruining careers and sending some to jail in the process.

Read the rest of this week's TGIF column at the Foundation for Economic Education website.

Cross-posted at Free Association.

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Lisa Casanova - 9/11/2006

For me, the war on doctors is one of the most depressing aspects of the War on Drugs. But I have little hope that it will change. From watching debates about drug laws and drug legalization, I don't see how we'll be able to overcome the sheer amount of misinformation and outright hysteria that surrounds narcotics of all kinds. We're so convinced addiction is not only absolutely horrible, but somehow so easy that it could happen to anyone at any time.
There are the people who assert that a single dose of heroin will damage your brain and make you addicted so that you will physically never be able to live without it for the rest of your life (not making that up). There's the experience of sitting in a doctor's office trying to explain that I am in pain from a chronic disease that is interfering with my ability to work, and having my doctor bring up worries about....dependency and addiction. As though they are risks that might outweigh any benefits of NOT BEING IN PAIN. There are actually medical guidelines for treating this illness that recommend against the use of pain medication specifically because of the risk of addiction.
We as a society are so terrified of this horrible monster of "addiction" that we think we need to stamp out use of narcotics for anything but the most severe pain, and even then, we need to dole them out sparingly, because you're better off being in pain than crossing over that line (which people think is always right in front of you) into drug addiction. The drug warriors are playing on our own worst, irrational, overblown fears. I have little hope of seeing that end.