The war on drugs has failed: doctors should lead calls for drug policy reform
My dad recently retired after 30 years of practicing oncology and hematology in a private practice ran with a female colleague, located in an office building adjacent to a very large regional hospital. He also worked a supervising shift in the ER every Thursday night, simply because he found it easier to be in the ER since so many of his patients visited it while he was oncall, sometimes forcing him to go in anyway.<p>I guess you could say I enjoy recreational drugs and have done them all and my dad generally knows this and we&#x27;ve talked quite a bit about drugs, specifically the insane amount of opiates and benzos he used to prescribe to his cancer patients.<p>I&#x27;ve sort of gotten the impression the DEA was a hassle in his life and he would not want any attention gained by publicly saying anything but &quot;drugs are bad&quot; (aka the failed war on drugs). There would be no incentive for him to do this on a day to day basis; in fact, there would only be disincentives, at least in the short term.<p>One day in the early 00s, the DEA showed up at his practice unannounced and wanted to start auditing him on the spot. They told him he was in the top 10 opiate prescribers in his area and they were concerned. They had absolutely no paperwork, so my dad kicked them out of his office, and later the building via security. He told them to come back with a warrant. They never did.<p>What struck me about this story is how visibly upset he got at the idea of the DEA depriving people of comfort when they are in pain. When he told me this he said, very emotionally, &quot;These people are dying and in pain and they want to look at paperwork?&quot; I can only imagine how pissed off he was when it happened.<p>This anecdote is all to say I think that doctors probably take one look at any effort to delegitimize the war on drugs and say Nope. What&#x27;s the point? To help society? Like they do every day as doctors? I just have never felt much of a &quot;let&#x27;s rock the boat&quot; attitude from any doctors I&#x27;ve known personally regarding drug laws (keep in mind they live in a bubble where all of the drugs are available to them via an Rx pad -- this is very relevant to the enthusiasm drought IMO).<p>Based on a lifetime of being around doctors as personal and family friends (my mom is a medical doctor too), I don&#x27;t think doctors are going to pick up this cause enthusiastically, even if it makes sense on paper.