It is a shame that people, here in the United States, continue to suffer in pain. As a country we do a p**s poor job at treating pain when we have SOOO many resources available to us. Many moons ago doctors use to use the excuse "I can't prescribe narcotics because I will get investigated by the DEA." It is called "proper documentation" folks. Do the work-up, document and treat the patient. There are cases now where payment is being withheld because the presence of pain and pain control were not addressed. Maybe if we did a better job, people would not be forced to control their pain using illegal resources. OK...stepping down now. I guess in a perfect world we wouldn't even be having this conversation........and we would all be pain free!! Dream the dream.