State legislatures act to increase collateral damage in the opioid epidemic war

This Thanksgiving I am particularly thankful that I am not a practicing physician any longer and
no one in my family suffers from chronic pain.

Several state legislatures have passed legislation that mandate chronic pain patients sign adhesion "contracts" and agree to periodic urine tests and a drug test prior to obtaining their first prescription for an opioid .I do not know if there are any penalties for physicians who do not comply with the law.

Here are details of the Pennsylvania law known as Opioid patients Prescription Agreement Act.It requires in order for a patient to get a prescription for an opioid for chronic pain they must sign an agreement  and consent to an initial urine drug test and then periodic tests.Credit is due to
the Pennsylvania Medical Society for their opposition to this ill advised law

Treating patients like criminals or potential criminals will do little to stem the opioid epidemic but is bad news of physicians,patients,dentists and pharmacists.

This recently enacted,effective immediately, Pennsylvania law is a poster child for an act of legislation that will make chronic pain patients lives even more miserable,doctor's practices more difficult and will decrease the number of opioid deaths not at all. To force patients to do periodic urine drug tests is to not even pretend to act for the welfare of the patient sacrificing it to some nebulous, hypothetical goal of decreasing the diversion of unused prescription drugs.(the idea here apparently being that if the patients tests negative for drugs that they may well be selling their medications) .

In an earlier era physicians would likely be pleased when their patient with chronic pain used less pain medicine- now they are expected and perhaps legally obliged to consider their patient might be involved in criminal activity.

 That is so different from the comment,traditionally attributed to
Maimonides

"May I never see in the patients anything but a fellow creature in pain"



What does a physician do if a chronic pain patient tests negative which raises the possibility of the patients diverting the pills.Is the physician obligated to investigate or call the police or the DEA? What if he doesn't?

Probably it is best to not have chest surgery or shoulder surgery or a Pacemaker implantation in Kentucky, Tenn. or Fla. as the legislatures in those states have mandated that a initial opioid prescription be limited to a 3 or 4 days supply.(1) Who would know better how to practice medicine  than the democratically elected officials ?Managing chronic medical conditions must be thought to be too important to be left in the hands of the patients and their physicians.


Dr.Jeffery A. Singer,surgeon and Cato fellow, has been studying and speaking out about  the harm done by the war on drugs for years and is worth quoting:

"Evidence continues to mount that curtailing prescription opioid use serves divert nonprescription use to heroin....most opioid users initiate drug use for non medical reason."

In short, the opioid problem is not because of the way physicians treat pain and limiting the access of patients with pain to pain relief will only make the "epidemic" worse.We have the wrong diagnosis and the wrong treatment.

1)National Conference of State Legislators. Prescribing Policies: States Confront Opioid Overdose Epidemic. NCSL website. http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/prescribing-policies-states-confront-opioid-overdose-epidemic.aspx. Published October 31, 2018