Absence of Morphine Condemns Children to a Life of Pain

The government's war on pain patients is ridiculous.  Most people do not abuse pain medication and use it to legitimately treat medical conditions.  Yet, the news media and the government focus on a few overdoses by people who were abusing the drugs and use that as a justification to limit legitimate patients' access to much needed pain relief (leading to suicides, depression, and other problems associated with undertreatment of pain).  Technology already exists that would prevent many, if not most narcotics overdose deaths.  For example, a device could be implanted in high risk patients that monitors heart rate and respiration rate.  When the individual's heart and respiration rate fall below a certain critical value, an opiate antagonist could be released into the blood by the device thereby preventing an overdose situation.  Yet, virtually no money has been spent to develop such technology, because the "Drug War" is not about saving lives, but rather has everything to do with controlling people -- even if it kills them.

Children in pain?  Adults in pain?  Police violence?  Mexico literally bleeding to death on our doorstep?  Human suffering is not an "unintended consequence" of the war on drugs; it's the WHOLE POINT. 

Third world countries haven't trademarked fear and ignorance.  Doctors right here in the U.S. are scared to death of the DEA.  And what's so wonderfully ironic is that oxycontin has a more wholesome image when in fact it's considerably more dangerous.