A new battlefront in the war on drugs.

• Author: Barolat, Giancarlo
• Position: Medicine & Health - Prescription painkillers - Sinal cord stimulation therapy

SOME LAWMAKERS and various media outlets have been waging a very public war against the abusers of prescription painkillers, but they might be fighting for an unjust cause. The publicity surrounding radio personality Rush Limbaugh's personal battle with the prescription drugs OxyContin and hydrocodone served to open the floodgates of opposition against these medications and the doctors who prescribe them.

Physicians, however, are not the only ones being put under the microscope. Patients who take prescription medications oftentimes are painted as drug addicts, pill poppers, and "doctor chasers," and, in many cases, forced to justify their diseases or need for medications. Yet, for those with chronic pain, prescription painkillers often are the only thing offering relief and the ability to lead a somewhat normal life.

For the estimated 50,000,000 chronic pain sufferers, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain prescriptions for painkillers and access to medications. Even more worrisome is the absence of alternatives offered by Federal regulators to patients in need. Rather than promoting advanced treatments, such as spinal cord stimulation, the Drug Enforcement Agency has set its sights on curtailing the nation's supply of prescription medications. A variety of proposed restrictions have pitted the agency against doctors, pharmacists, and patients. The question is, how can these potent chemicals be kept out of the hands of the abusers but still made available to legitimate patients?

The abuse of prescription painkillers certainly is not a new problem or, for that matter, one that seems to be showing any signs of slowing down. According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, an estimated 1,600,000 Americans used prescription pain relievers nonmedically for the first time in 1999. This number has grown drastically since the 1980s, when statistics showed less than 500,000 first-time users per year. These numbers continue to skyrocket. In 2002, Federal statistics indicate that more than 6,000,000 Americans were classified as current abusers of prescription drugs.

When Limbaugh went public about his own personal battle with prescription drugs, it shed more light on this growing dilemma. However, the response by the DEA and the White House has been a little overzealous. Some critics call the DENs attempts a last-chance assault on the tailing war on drugs and believe politicians are going after physicians and pharmacists...