If you need further evidence that politicians don't understand the fentanyl crisis they helped to create, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has you covered. Meanwhile, we already sell some body fluids in select circumstances; will the day come when we sell body parts to the highest bidder?
Drug War
The war on pain patients and the doctors who treat them continues, the latest volley being fired by Congress. Cato Institute's Dr. Jeffrey Singer tells us about how the DEA, with the backing of lawmakers, is able to continue its ridiculous campaign that makes opioid prescribing even more difficult for physicians.
It appears to defy logic that naloxone, the antidote for opioid overdoses, isn't available on demand. After all, it's a lifesaving drug with no potential for abuse. But it's not so simple, as Dr. Jeffrey Singer explains.
The CDC's dreadful 2016 opioid prescribing guideline caused untold damage, both to pain patients and opioid addicts. Six years later we have a revised document. Is it any better? Dr. Jeffrey Singer argues no.
President Biden recently took a small step in the right direction by acknowledging that people shouldn’t be caged for smoking cannabis and questioning the DEA classifying it as a Schedule 1 drug. Hopefully, it will spark Congress to take more definitive action.
Dr. Jeffrey Singer has written repeatedly about the "iron law of prohibition" and how it has contributed to soaring drug overdose rates, as generally safe medications are replaced by those that are far more dangerous. Not, it's not fentanyl. A class of illegal narcotics called nitazenes is now making the rounds, leaving devastation in its path.
Kentucky is one of the hardest hit states when it comes to drug overdose deaths. Dr. Jeff Singer discusses how the state can use kiosks that provide drug paraphernalia to address this problem as well as HIV/AIDS and fentanyl poisoning. The essence of harm reduction.
Apparently, the U.S. Department of Justice thinks the answer to the above question is “yes.” The agency presumes to know just how much pain medication, and what type and dose, each and every inhabitant of the country will require each year, an upside-down debacle by any measure.
Last week Arizona Governor Doug Ducey exercised his best judgment, aiming to expand the scope of the health care workforce during the COVID-19 public health emergency. And yet health care practitioners lack the same ability, based upon their knowledge and their patients’ circumstances, to use their best judgment when treating pain.