Attachment #1 approx the number of physicians in the USA.

Chronic Pain Patients are suffering and we will experience the same high death rates (Suicide) for relief of their chronic pain…just like in the 60's, 70's and 80's due to the overuse of illegal drugs.

How the War on Drugs Is Hurting Chronic Pain Patients

http://www.painpatientscoalition.com/news2017-1.html

Prescribed Painkillers Didn’t Cause the Opioid Crisis

People who need pain meds aren't usually the ones who get addicted.

https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/a3z98b/big-pharma-didnt-cause-the-opioid-crisis-most-pain-patients-dont-get-addicted

The truth about the US ‘opioid crisis’ – prescriptions aren’t the problem: why not just clarify that most of the abuse of prescription pain pills is not by those for whom they’re prescribed?

But drug overdoses that include opioids (about 63%) are most often caused by a combination of drugs (or drugs and alcohol) and most often include illegal drugs (eg heroin). When prescription drugs are involved, methadone and oxycontin are at the top of the list, and these drugs are notoriously acquired and used illegally.

Yes, there has been an upsurge in the prescription of opioids in the US over the past 20 to 30 years (though prescription rates are currently decreasing).

***This was a response to an underprescription crisis. Severe and chronic pain were grossly undertreated for most of the 20th century. Even patients dying of cancer were left to writhe in pain until prescription policies began to ease in the 70s and 80s.

The cause? An opioid scare campaign not much different from what’s happening today.

Certainly some doctors have been prescribing opioids too generously, and a few are motivated solely by profit. But that’s a tiny slice of the big picture.

But the news media rarely bother to distinguish between the legitimate prescription of opioids for pain and the diverting (or stealing) of pain pills for illicit use.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/truth-us-opioid-crisis-too-easy-blame-doctors-not-prescriptions

More than 600 charged in nation’s largest health care fraud investigation

The Justice Department charged more than 600 people, including 165 doctors and other medical professionals, with making $2 billion in false billings in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday was the nation’s largest ever health care fraud take-down.

The cases are connected to the nation’s ongoing drug overdose crisis, which killed nearly 64,000 people in 2016, Sessions said. About two-thirds of the overdose deaths were caused by opioids, led by illegal fentanyl.

Of those arrested, 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.

“Many of these fraudsters have stolen tax dollars, and many have helped flood our streets with drugs,” Sessions said. “One doctor allegedly defrauded Medicare of more than $112 million by distributing 2.2 million unnecessary dosages of drugs like oxycodone and fentanyl.” Last year, the Justice Department charged more than 400 people across the country with participating in health care fraud scams totaling about $1.3 billion in false billings, including for the prescription and distribution of opioids.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/more-than-600-charged-in-nations-largest-heath-care-fraud-investigation/2018/06/28/fe45113a-7ae3-11e8-93cc-6d3beccdd7a3_story.html?utm_term=.4e11ce20bacd

How the War on Drugs Is Hurting Chronic Pain Patients

http://www.painpatientscoalition.com/news2017-1.html

Prescribed Painkillers Didn’t Cause the Opioid Crisis

People who need pain meds aren't usually the ones who get addicted.

https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/a3z98b/big-pharma-didnt-cause-the-opioid-crisis-most-pain-patients-dont-get-addicted

Yes, there has been an upsurge in the prescription of opioids in the US over the past 20 to 30 years (though prescription rates are currently decreasing).

***This was a response to an underprescription crisis. Severe and chronic pain were grossly undertreated for most of the 20th century. Even patients dying of cancer were left to writhe in pain until prescription policies began to ease in the 70s and 80s.

The cause? An opioid scare campaign not much different from what’s happening today.

Certainly some doctors have been prescribing opioids too generously, and a few are motivated solely by profit. But that’s a tiny slice of the big picture.

But the news media rarely bother to distinguish between the legitimate prescription of opioids for pain and the diverting (or stealing) of pain pills for illicit use.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/truth-us-opioid-crisis-too-easy-blame-doctors-not-prescriptions