From Hilary Gee, Cartmel, Cumbria, UK
I do understand that, as Andrew Kolodny says, there is a problem with the over-prescription of opioids and that many people could manage their pain with less powerful versions (13 January, p 35). Even a mild pain gets very wearing and hampering if it never goes away. And if it does persist, as with the chronic arthritis I have, becoming addicted to painkillers is more or less irrelevant, since I continue to need relief anyway.
Though Kolodny doesn't want to ban painkillers, anyone with chronic pain will understand the fear of being denied relief because of other people's problems. The pain is real, it may never go away, and nor will the need for effective drugs. Perhaps research into safer but equally effective pain treatments might be the best cure for the addiction crisis. And controlling the drug companies, of course. They have been allowed to over-sell into the ludicrously commercial US medical system.
