DrugBuyers.Com: PAIN RALLY & PRESS CONFERENCE

Report in the Memphis Commercial Appeal regarding the Mississippi Pain Rally:

Doctors ask pain treatment leniency
By Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press
May 2, 2003

JACKSON - Physicians who treat chronic pain patients are often scared to prescribe drugs because they don't want to be punished by the state, says Dr. Ronald Myers of Belzoni.

At the Capitol Thursday, Myers said the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure has been "insensitive" to doctors and patients who live with constant backaches, headaches or other maladies.

"It has created a fear factor across the state," Myers said.

Dr. Joe Burnett, executive director of the state licensure board, said physicians have no reason to fear that their licenses will be suspended or revoked if they are properly treating chronic-pain patients.

The treatment often includes prescribing narcotics such as Dilaudid, a painkiller similar to morphine.

Burnett said doctors should conduct regular physicals of the patients, keep strict records of prescriptions and refills, and provide appropriate medical consultations, including referring patients to other specialists when needed.

Burnett said he has met with pain specialists and has told them to be "liberal" in prescribing drugs for patients who truly need them.

But "we don't want drugs being diverted to the street," Burnett said.

Myers and about a dozen pain patients and their relatives gathered on the Capitol steps Thursday to call for changes in the way Mississippi deals with pain doctors.

Myers said he would ask the 2004 Legislature to adopt a law similar to one enacted recently in Arkansas, giving physicians greater leeway to prescribe drugs for chronic pain without fear of losing their licenses.

Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure records show that in the year running July 1, 2000, through June 30, 2001, the board disciplined 17 doctors, two for prescription violations.

The next year, the board disciplined 19 doctors, four for prescription violations.

Victoria Brooks of Greenville said she has lived with constant pain since she was 17 and fell down a flight of stairs at work. She's 43 now.

Brooks said she has suffered other injuries in car wrecks, and some doctors treat her with suspicion or indifference when she tells them about her chronic pain.

She said some chronic pain sufferers need several prescriptions.

"Why can't we get the pain medication we need instead of being treated like junkies or drug dealers?" she said.

TC&GL

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