The War on Drugs, the War on Doctors, and the Pain Crisis in America
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Eighty Years of Naked Emperors

by Alexander DeLuca, M.D., June 4, 2004
Submitted to Professor Michael Sparer, Ph.D., Health Care Policy, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City. Originally posted: June 5, 2004.  Last minor revisions: June 17, 2004. This Table of Contents posted: June 24, 2004. This Table of Contents minor revisions: August 13, 2004.

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Table of Contents:

Introduction

Historical Antecedents

• A Tax Act Gone Terribly Wrong

• In the Course of His Professional Practice Only…

• The Doctor’s Dilemma

Big Lies and Bullies Trump Research in the War on Drugs

• The LaGuardia Commission

• The Dissembling DEA and the Myth of the "Chilling Effect"

Drugs are Bad. Compared to What?

The Pain Crisis in America

• Magnitude and Nature of the Problem

• Etiology of the Undertreatment of Chronic Pain in America

• The Distortion of Medical Practice

Conclusion

The Solution…

• Is Not More Education of Physicians

• Is Not More “Research” in Thrall to Governmental Policy

• Is Not More Negotiation with Law Enforcement

• Is to Let Doctors Treat Pain, Let Doctors Treat Substance Use Disorders

• The Real Enemy is the Big Lie

Appendix One - Fooling most of the people all of the time

• Declare a perpetual crisis…

Appendix Two - Statistical Tricks of the Drug Warriors

• Outcome Obfuscation
   

• Denominator Abuse
   

• Flash Trash
   

• Shock Schlock

 References
 

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