Pain Pill Hysteria

I have a friend who has a variety of acute medical problems including severe diabetes, hepatitis C and liver cancer. He is now in the final stage of life. The doctors prescribed over 15 different drugs to him during the last several years. He was prescribed oxycontin, and in high doses for 7 years. No longer able to afford his private medical insurance, he went to the VA (he is a Vietnam vet) where his oxycontin presription (240 mg. per day) was replaced with a prescription for 20 mg. per day of methadone. He was "accused" of enjoying the oxy. He had to sign a "narcotics contract" to get the methadone. Of course the small allotment of methadone was not nearly enough. A month later his urine sample contained no methadone metabolites and he was accused of selling the methadone, which he had used up long before the month was through. Another urine sample tested positive for oxycodone and cannabis, which he had admitted to procuring on the street as he was both addicted after 7 years of prescribed oxy, and in need of analgesic medication for pain. He is quickly deteriorating, in pain and bedridden. When he takes enough oxy he is out of bed, active, and has some degree of quality to what is left of his life. Because he "violated" the terms of his narcotics contract he is denied prescriptions for oxy or any other narcotic drug, despite the fact that these drugs are precisely what he needs to experience any enjoyment and functionality during his life's final chapter.