Pubdate: Fri, 18 Feb 2005
Source: Malden Observer (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Community Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www2.townonline.com/malden/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3535
Author:  Emil Crawford
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Referenced:  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n260/a08.html

DON'T DEMONIZE NARCOTICS

To the editor:

I have surveyed over the last several weeks many articles about narcotics; 
and not one of them has anything positive to say about them. They are 
always filled with anecdotes about stories of addiction and overdose that 
are questionable at best and never present statistical information ("Opiate 
habit easy to get by prescription", Feb. 11, Page 10).

There is never anything in the articles about people taking their own lives 
because they cannot get access to pain medicines due to the demonization of 
narcotics in the media. There are never interviews of sick patients 
writhing in pain that depend upon the miracle drugs to function normally.

It's all sermons from the condescending journalists, telling us what is 
best for us and blowing everything out of the proper perspective so there 
can never be an honest debate on the role of narcotics in a free society as 
between intelligent adults. To them, we are just babies that need someone 
to look after us. Journalists at times have to be the most pompous class of 
people on the face of the earth. Anyway, they couldn't be doing a better 
propaganda job if they worked directly for the Bush administration. I think 
it's time to write some of these papers letters and ask them to be fair in 
their reporting for a change.

I'm sure most journalists go home to a nice alcoholic beverage of their 
choice after a hard day's work giving everyone sermons about all of the 
approved topics. I don't suppose they ever consider the hypocrisy of it all 
when they engage in drinking alcohol, a drug that also has it share of 
addicts and has also claimed its share of victims probably many more, in 
fact, than narcotics ever have.

Actually, your article is so skewed that I thought I should add just a 
little more. You imply that almost all people that regularly use OxyContin 
become heroin addicts. Where are the statistics to back up your claim? To 
the extent that that could be true maybe it has to do with chronic pain 
patients not being able to get adequate relief because doctors are afraid 
of over-prescribing thanks to biased reporting like this and the 
administration's new policy of going after doctors and second-guessing 
their decisions. Where are the articles about the big drug companies hiding 
the results about the harmful effects of non-narcotic pain medications such 
as Vioxx and Celebrex that have been shown to increase the risks of heart 
problems and strokes?

Emil Crawford

La Vida Nueva del Oeste

Albuquerque, N.M. 
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MAP posted-by: Beth