The War Over Prescription Painkillers

Name: Leilan
Post #1
Topic: Health, Politics
Author: Radley Balko
Publication Name: The Huffington Post
Date of Publication: January 29, 2012
Length of Article: 3 pages

For quite some time, there has been an issue in America over whether or not prescription painkillers should be administered to patients, as there has been a dramatic rise in deaths from overdoses from prescription painkillers. People have used these painkillers, such as Oxycontin and Percocet, and died--a large number of people significant enough to cause a movement to crack down on patients who use painkillers, monitoring them closely and instigating tighter policies and aggressive tactics to prevent drug diversion.
However, this is a problem for the patients who are really suffering from chronic pain. Because of the people who pose as patients in chronic pain and the doctors who "unscrupulously hand out prescriptions", those who really need the medication are at risk of not receiving their needed pills due to the increased security.
This is a problem which has significance in Florida, which was the state with the first panic over painkillers in the early 21st century; the same state where the Republican primaries were held on January 30th, 2012. This was not one of the issues discussed, though it held importance and should have been brought up by the moderators as it relates to the noteworthy matters of Medicare and Medicaid, and also the drug war and the aging population. The government has yet to find an effective way to deal with this complication, and as seen from the Republican primary in Florida, there is a chance that the next administration (should it be Republican) will have a tough time dealing with it too.