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IPFS News Link • Drugs and Medications

America's Other Epidemic: Chronic Untreated Pain

• townhall.com

Drug addiction is 2016's big nonpolitical story. CNN aired a special, "Prescription Addiction: Dead in the USA." The Senate passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act to provide grants for treatment and improved monitoring. The House also is working on legislation, with funding expected later in the year.

Grant Smith, deputy director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, sees Washington moving in the right direction by "treating drugs as a health issue" and "addressing head on some of the harms associated with opioid use." Some 78 Americans die from opioid overdoses every day, CNN reports. Its special "Prescription Addiction" related some horror stories -- the football star who was popping 1,400 opioid pills a month; the teen who suffered irreversible brain damage after he started experimenting with friends; the teen who died of an accidental overdose after he got hooked on drugs prescribed to treat a football injury. Gupta cautioned that there is "legitimate pain that warrants" a prescription, but for a short period of time. Given the rise in overdose deaths, the media should warn the public about the risk that comes with painkillers.

I see a downside to coverage that has turned painkiller addiction into a media chew toy. This narrative focuses on doctors who for a variety of reasons seem to have overprescribed medication, and on patients who at their own peril try to game the system to get drugs to feed their addiction.


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