G'day Odin,

I'm sorry my friend but you misunderstood me completely in relation to the "too eager to prescribe medication". If we are talking pain relief I would say completely the opposite. It is very dangerous in the US to be a doctor and care enough for chronic pain sufferers to prescribe narcotics (a narcotic is basically a drug of the opiate family, pethidine, methadone, morphine, oxycontin, oxycodone, heroin). You can end up losing your practice and ending up in jail. While people believe that the Constitution protects your rights in the US, if doctors cannot defend themselves against attacks when RICO or Homeland Legislation is thrown in (and doctors typically have sufficient money to hire good lawyers) then it is very unlikely that anyone is going to get a fair deal.

Overprescription of other drugs, now that is a different issue. The pleasant junkets that the drug companies provide, etc, greatly distorts the markets. Isn't as bad here because limits have been imposed and if a drug doesn't get on our NHS system (approved to be sold below cost) then it is very unlikely to be successful except to those that have no other choice.


Richard


Sane=fits in. Unreasonable=world needs to fit to him. All Progress requires unreasonableness