How to reduce drug overdose deaths: Your Say

Letter to the editor:

Opioid abuse is a huge problem in the USA. In emergency medicine, we see this firsthand. More people are dying of drug overdoses than motor vehicle crashes. The increased heroin use is related to the availability and reduced cost of this illegal drug, compared with prescription pills (“America's deadliest drug problem: Our view”).

The challenge to physicians is that many people legitimately need pain medication. There also is no objective test for pain. In addition, many well-meaning efforts have compelled physicians to improve treatment of pain. For example, both the American Pain Society (in 1996) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (in 2000) recommended that when patients report pain, physicians should take action.

Each patient must be treated with compassion when dealing with legitimate pain. Addicted patients need access to substance abuse treatment programs, and the social conditions that contribute to addiction and dependence must be addressed. Physicians must be allowed room to make treatment decisions based on individual patients, not prescribing guidelines.

Jay Kaplan, president, American College of Emergency Physicians; San Anselmo, Calif.

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proposing rules for prescribing painkillers is a possible step forward, but people losing profits are going to oppose them as much as the addicts.

— Jacob Allman

Only antibiotics should need a prescription (because misuse causes resistance, which affects us all). People should be free to do what they want and be responsible for their own actions.

— Mathew Andresen