Disappearing docs: DEA painkiller flip-flop.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - Drug Enforcement Administration pulls out the pamhlet on safety of painkiller drug prescriptions from its website

IN A PAMPHLET released last August, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) attempted to reassure doctors who worry that prescribing narcotics could attract unwanted attention from the government. Among other things, the agency acknowledged that "simple exposure to opiods" is not enough to produce addiction; that "any physician can be duped" by people seeking opioids for nonmedical reasons; that "pseudoaddiction," the undertreated pain patient's superficial resemblance to an addict, "greatly complicates the assessment of drug-related problems"; and that "the parameters of acceptable medical practice include patterns of drug prescription ... that may raise a 'red flag' for both clinicians and regulators."

Doctors fighting the "opiophobia" that leads to widespread undertreatment of pain have been making such points for many years. But it was surprising to see them endorsed by the DEA, which has long insisted there is no conflict between drug control and pain control.

Although such concessions may have fed the fears the pamphlet was supposed to assuage, they also reinforced the arguments of doctors who say they've been unjustly prosecuted for prescribing narcotics in good faith. (See "Dr. Feelscared," August/September.) That may explain why the...