The DEA has set up a hotline you can call to anonymously report anyone you suspect of diverting prescription drugs. That would include your doctor, of course. In fact, doctors are the DEA’s biggest and most prized target in its Oxycontin war, even though vast quantities of prescription painkillers go missing from warehouses and supply lines all the time.

Now, let’s say you’re an MS patient in toe-curling pain. And let’s say you go to a pain doctor and you ask him for a possibly-illegal amount of oxycodone-containing medication to alleviate that pain. Which set of circumstances is going to leave you most likely to report your doctor to the DEA’s tip line?

1) Your doctor grants your request for possibly illegal amounts of pain medication, giving you relief, and giving you hope that he’ll fulfill it the next time you ask, too?

Or…

2) Your doctor denies your request, and you’re forced to continue to endure the pain, snap at your kids, strain your marriage, and put up with an all-around miserable existence?

I’d say the doctors whose names are going to be most mentioned over this tip line are those who piss off people who want pain medication, but don’t get it. If your doctor bends the rules and risks his career to help you feel better, you’re probably not going to turn him in.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 14th, 2004 at 9:39 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Pain Treatment, Police Informants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.