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American Iatrogenic Association Library
Information that improves understanding of medical error, philosphy, and practice

Drug Policy Who'll Stop The Pain? Torture, despair, agony, and death are the symptoms of "opiophobia," a well-documented medical syndrome fed by fear, superstition, and the war on drugs. Doctors suffer the syndrome. Patients suffer the consequences. Jacob Sullum, Reason, Jan 1997 Interview with Nobel laureate Milton Friedman about drug prohibition "The case for prohibiting drugs is exactly as strong and as weak as the case for prohibiting people from overeating. We all know that overeating causes more deaths than drugs do. If it's in principle OK for the government to say you must not consume drugs because they'll do you harm, why isn't it all right to say you must not eat too much because you'll do harm? Why isn't it all right to say you must not try to go in for skydiving because you're likely to die? Why isn't it all right to say, "Oh, skiing, that's no good, that's a very dangerous sport, you'll hurt yourself"? Where do you draw the line?" America's Drug Forum, 1991. Interviewed by Randy Paige. Why should we legalize drugs? "The widespread propaganda that illegal drugs are "deadly poisons" is a hoax. There is little or no medical evidence of long term ill effects from sustained, moderate consumption of uncontaminated marijuana, cocaine or heroin. If these substances - most of them have been consumed in large quantities for centuries - were responsible for any chronic, progressive or disabling diseases, they certainly would have shown up in clinical practice and/or on the autopsy table. But they simply have not!" Physicians and the war on drugs (pdf) "It should be our profession’s responsibility to help the public understand the actual and comparative hazards of illegal substances so they can address the issue rationally. Pathologists should be more outspoken about their knowledge that with perhaps a few rare exceptions these “drugs”-- which have been widely used for centuries -- have never been identified with a serious or fatal disease process." Benson B. Roe, M.D., Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California at San Francisco. The drug policy problem "Any meaningful discussion of the values expressed in drug policies raises large philosophical questions. We might begin by asking which is more important, health or liberty? Is it better to be sick and free from coercion in a society where medicine and state are separate, or to be healthy under the control of a therapeutic state? Can we trust our medical guardians to refrain from the paternalism and the persecution of "undesirables" exercised by theocracies throughout history? Who will guard us from the guardians?" Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. Pain.com This site illustrates clearly how physicians function primarily as agents of the state, controlling "abuse" and "addiction," and only secondarily as healers. As of this writing, the home page includes a link to a joint statement (pdf) from the Drug Enforcement Administration and "organizations supporting pain management." The statement is titled, "Promoting Pain Relief and Preventing Abuse of Pain Medications: A Critical Balancing Act." The real balancing act is between physicians acting as healers and as enforcers of the nation's drug laws. Since it is these very drug laws that cause people to needlessly suffer, this "balancing act" is pure fiction. Until the historic right of Americans to self-medicate is restored,, there will be no pain relief. And until physicians stop acting as deputized drug law enforcers, they will not serve the interests of their clients. For physicians who practice "addiction medicine" and who "prevent abuse" to also be in charge of pain medication is to put the foxes squarely in charge of the hens. Schaffer Library of Drug Policy Large repository of information about drugs and their effects, laws regarding self-medication, and prohibition. DRCNet Drug Library Huge library of articles and links relating to drugs and drug policy. Drug Policy Alliance Advocating changes in present drug laws. Hungry for the Next Fix: Behind the relentless, misguided search for a medical cure for addiction. "According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (overseen by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), about 3 million Americans have used heroin. Of these, one in 10 report using the drug in the last year, and one in 20 say they’ve used it in the past month. The percentages for cocaine are similar. In both cases, daily use is so rare that the government does not provide figures for it. These findings indicate that the vast majority of heroin and cocaine users either never become addicted or, if they do, soon manage to moderate their use or abstain." Stanton Peele, Reason, May 2002 Taking the Initiative: Will the feds let states try new drug policies? "The medical use of marijuana is permitted by nine states (including Nevada), in all but one case as a result of ballot initiatives. Far from conceding that people—whether voters, physicians, or patients—"have a right to make their own decisions," Walters and his predecessor, Barry McCaffrey, have insisted that doctors who recommend cannabis should lose their federal prescription licenses." Jacob Sullum, ReasonOnline, Nov 1, 2002 AiA Home Site Contents American Iatrogenic Association 2513 S. Gessner, #232 Houston, Texas 77063 www.iatrogenic.org aia@iatrogenic.org		See also: Medical error Psychiatrogenics Medical practice, policy, regulation AiA Yahoo Group (archive of news stories about medical error and policies)

drug addiction, drug abuse, pain treatment, opioids, drug legalization, drug war