State and federal lawmakers, working with the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and most law enforcement agencies, claim to be well intentioned in their zeal to stop the wave of prescription drug abuse. Unfortunately, the effort to eradicate that abuse has led to the creation of panic among doctors, pharmacists and the patients they serve.
Pain patients are the real victims of this overzealous and overreaching war on prescription drug abuse. The quota systems and other methods employed by the DEA are tantamount to arresting every person between age 15 and 20 because that age group is more likely to commit certain crimes. It is profiling at it's worst and it harms real patients every day. The collateral damage caused by the DEA is unacceptable and unwarranted.