PAIN RELIEF AND PUNISHMENT

Re: Drug war punishes the victims of chronic pain, July 20.

My husband is innocent of the crime that has sent him to prison for 25
years. Yet these long days in prison do not compare to the years he lost to
pain. For the 10 years prior to the day he had the morphine pump surgically
implanted in his body, Rich suffered with pain, and with every treatment
that attempted to find relief came a roller coaster of hope and
disappointment, a bright future never realized.

Yet neither prison nor pain compares to what happens to a person when the
medical establishment and the public believe you are a slacker, a drug
abuser or an addict. Opiates are the Vietnam of medical treatments: People
can never be proud that they found pain relief.

Our society must do more to lift the veil of suspicion which we lay on all
people like Rich who are taking his medication for a legitimate medical
condition and should not have to live in shame because it works.

- -- Linda Paey, O.D., Hudson