Goodness, I could write about this bilge (the news story, that is, not the posts about it) all night if I had the time. I'll leave it at one lengthy thought. In statistical hypothesis testing there are two fundamental errors one can make: accepting as true a hypothesis that is false, or rejecting as false a hypothesis that is true. There are mathematical techniques that one can use to minimize the probability of committing EITHER type of error, but such techniques invariably--and I mean that literally--increase the probability of committing the other type of error.

Consider the following analogy. Any doctor or pharmacy can make the "mistake" of prescribing and dispensing medications to patients who don't "really" need them, or not prescribing and dispensing medications to patients who do "really" need them. As is true in statistics, any measures taken to minimize the chances of committing the one type of error increases the likelihood of committing the other. It would thus appear that the media, with their relentlessly breathless reporting on painkiller "abuse," and all the other elected and appointed nags, scolds and busybodies who have--for some unfathomable reason--the right to arbitrarily enact and enforce the laws and regulations that determine what we may and may not put into our bodies, have decided that it is far, far better that legitimate pain patients suffer in order to protect those given to excess as a result of their own (wince!) foolishness and weakness. In short, our current regime of pharmeceutical regulation is based on the premise that the innocent must be severely penalized in order to protect the "guilty" (so we can save them to fuel the population in our continually growing penal system--or, whats just about as bad--our court-ordered "rehab" Gulag).

Everyone here already knows that they should contact their elected officials, etc. and urge them to turn the heat way down on ANY doctors who are attempting to promote their patients' well being by providing adequate, ongoing pain medication, and not just to people suffering from terminal diseases. I would also urge anyone who watches the TV station which aired this story, the magazines that run stories on painkiller abuse (which typically amount to 3 or 4 people whining that keeping track of their mulitiple RX's was just such a hassle), and their advertisers that they refuse to have anything more to do with such irresponsible establishments and exactly why they chose to take their business elsewhere. What it boils down to is this: you can have a free society or a risk free society, but not both. Guess which choice our media and political establishments would make on our behalf? Idiots.