An Unintended Consequence of the War on Drugs
Some nursing home patients go days without relief:
Dr. Jonathan Musher, a geriatrician and past president of the American Medical Directors Association, a trade group of long-term-care doctors and administrators…recently had a patient move to a nursing home after a hip fracture. At the time, she was not on narcotic pain medication. That night the nurse called Dr. Musher to say that the woman was in pain. “I was told I had to call the pharmacist,” he said. “O.K., what’s the pharmacist’s number? The nurse has to call me back, she wasn’t sure. I get a call back with the number. I call the 800 number and leave a message. I get a call back a half hour later.
“So now there’s been a 45-minute delay. Now he tells me I have to fax in a prescription. I’m not home, so I say I will do it in 15 minutes. After I fax it, I call the nursing home, and they haven’t heard anything from the pharmacist. Finally I told them to send the patient to the hospital.”
There are lots of other unintended consequences. All bad.
It seems like the people who need pain killers the most are too old, too sick, and in too much pain to navigate the system. Yet the addicts who merely want narcotics have nothing better to do that doctor-shop; describing the magic combinations of symptoms that will motivate numerous doctors to write scripts. That’s just the opposite of the way it should be.
Solution: legalize all of it. Problem solved.
The whole War on Drugs needs to go. Shift half of the savings into treatment programs and the rest towards debt reduction. We will save money and have less crime. Patients who needs narcs will get better care.
Steve
From a minimalist perspective, the first thing to go should be differential sentencing. Giving out $100 traffic tickets to users, but 20-year prison sentences to suppliers, merely creates an opportunity for organized crime.
If society truly finds it necessary to outlaw certain drugs, then give everyone– users and traffickers alike– equal prison time. After all, anyone who purchases an eighth-ounce of marijuana is as guilty of conspiracy as the distributor.
Or else give everyone the same slap on the wrist. Take your pick.
This is an example of government policy making almost anyone untrustworthy. Even people with a history of chronic pain who truly need the narcotics – they must go through the tapestry of regulations and get a prescription. Ridiculous.