Of the 258 fatal overdoses from prescription narcotics in Clark County in 2007, a rate of 13 per 100,000 people, how many of those that overdosed were under a doctor's care for pain management? It would seem that the Coroner's office would have that information. Then the next sentence could read, Of the 13 per 100,000, 3 were under a doctors care or 6 or 8 or ?. Right now, the missing factor is whether there were any overdoses of patients under the care of a physician. Could we get that information?

For anyone that has set by a loved one wracked with pain and had to deal with a doctor who refuses to write a prescription for the proper dosage of pain medication knows what sheer helplessness feels like. My mother's problem started with a nagging pain in her back. It got worse and moved into her legs. She became bedridden and was in constant pain. Her managed care physician made a referral to a specialist. In the meantime, although her pain became increasingly more severe, he refused to write a prescription for more than Vicodin. Even though the doctor knew her mobility was compromised by whatever was causing the pain, he still required her to be brought to his office every other week, where she would wait, in pain, for several hours, so he would write another prescription, for Vicodin, for minimal relief. Why, if she wasn't caught in a managed care system where one doctor said she needed immediate surgery and a second doctor said less invasive treatment interventions should be tried first, she wouldn't have been suffered for ten months. Finally a third doctor was called in and evaluated my mother and said her condition had deteriated seriously and immediate intervention was needed. The pain was in her legs and back and robbed her of her ability to walk. A preop exam revealed a small nodule in her chest and further testing proved it to be cancer. But she was in the hospital, on a morphine pump and for the first time in over a year, she was pain free for the last 60 days of her life. Do you think I worried about her becoming "addicted". So for anyone who hasn't had to walk the walk with a loved one who suffers because some "do-gooders" want to protect people who misuse or overdose on medication and those others who want to instill such fear in doctors that they "under" medicate their patients stop it. You haven't completed the first part of your job - you know, the drinkers, the pot smokers, the crack addicts...once you get them under control, then maybe you can look to add some more jobs but until then, you have more than you can handle.