Balko continues his series on pain pills:
There is agreement that there are bad doctors running "pill mills" who are too loose with the prescription pad. And there's agreement that far too few doctors get effective training in pain management (but disagreement over what that training ought to be). But that's about where the agreement ends.
Patient advocates say the pill mills are the result of bad policies that have had a chilling effect that has scared good doctors out of pain management. They add that more laws aimed at curbing access to opoids will only worsen the problem. Portenoy, for example, points to a new law in Washington state requiring doctors to go through a number of detailed procedures before prescribing opioids to chronic pain patients. The result, as the Seattle Times reported last August, has been for doctors to stop treating those patients, and for clinics to turn them away.
Earlier posts on the subject here and here. Reader push-back here.
The Dish 