Letter to Senator Daschle

April 19,1998

Senator Thomas Daschle
The United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

RE: “Civilian casualties of the war on drugs.”

Dear Senator Daschle:

Our nation is facing a healthcare crisis surrounding the treatment of chronic intractable pain. This crisis is affecting millions of Americans who suffer from non-cancerous and non-terminal medically diagnosed conditions. These are conditions which may never go away, pain which a person must live with. Our foundation advocates for the rights of these individuals to lead relatively normal lives.

There have been landmark breakthroughs in the scientific development of safe medications in recent years. Because of outdated paradigms of thinking about pain medicines, millions of legitimate pain patients are presently prevented from receiving adequate medical treatment. Their lives are crippled, their families and jobs destroyed, by the tyranny of untreated pain. This is the type of suffering that comes from an auto accident, work injury, and debilitating illnesses to which we are all vulnerable. Without access to safe, medically prescribed and supervised oral medicines, these potentially productive members of society choose alcohol, street drugs and suicide. Of the people who choose suicide, they do not really wish to die ?they just want to be free from pain. All of these individuals have one goal in common: To lead productive lives and to experience a quality of life that is free from immobilizing
pain.

Attached is a copy of our letter to President Clinton. We would appreciate your support on this issue. Would you please tell him you have read this letter, and ask what you can do to help? Could this be included in the current Patients’ bill as the Pain Patients Bill of Rights?

Respectfully Yours,

J.S. Hochman, M.D.
Executive Director
The National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain

Mark Gordon
National Communications Director
(408) 655-8812 • Fax (408) 655-2823 • email: markgordon@paincare.org