Harvey Silverglate’s “Freedom Watch” column on the bad faith with which the DEA prosecutes pain doctors is yet another cogent exposition of the strange activities of this agency. Charged with eliminating drugs from our streets — which they have not accomplished because it can’t be done — the DEA seems to have angrily turned on those who do not operate in the shadowy world of the drug dealer but out in the open: our doctors. This not only affects our hard-working physicians, but also the very health care we demand, since terrified doctors are now hesitant to prescribe the sufficient strength and quantity of powerful drugs that some people require. The trial of William Hurwitz was one of the DEA’s we-do-it-because-we-can efforts, which leads one to seriously question the motives that produce such outrages.
The war on drugs is a derelict. It must be completely overhauled or thrown overboard. Likewise, the campaign against pain doctors and their patients is based on the DEA’s narrow view of this aspect of medicine. We can disagree, but there is no reason to go hauling off Dr. Hurwitz and the likes to prison. We need sound medical care much more than we need the DEA.
Congress must exercise its duty to protect Americans in the same way it participates in the war on terror, for there is no greater terror than to be denied the relief of untreated or under-treated pain. Congress should hold hearings to investigate the DEA, and then enact legislation to protect those in pain in America.
DH Michon
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Shedding light on our energy crisis
Thank you for your stellar article on the origins of the coal that helps power our lives. Rarely does a piece of reporting cause me a sleepless night, but Aviva Chomsky’s moving account of the human, economic, and ecological costs of coal mining in Colombia kept me awake writing e-mails about it to my friends and pondering the moral responsibility those of us who benefit from it have toward its victims. It is too easy for us to ignore the suffering we cause. Our affluence abets our ignorance and enables our apathy. The Phoenix has done us a service in forcing us to confront the consequences of our actions. My hope is that I am not the only one losing sleep.
Stephen M. Seaward
Brighton
Advance fee and sympathy
Regarding “White Hunters, Black Hearts,” anyone who loses a fortune to a 419 advance-fee scam deserves our sympathy. The loss that they suffer seems to be an excessive penalty for what others have deemed to be their “stupidity.”
In fact, this call for sympathy is supported by common sense. Most of us would throw a lifesaver to a drowning person, for instance, even if he or she fell overboard after drinking too much. There should be limits to the you-made-your-bed-now-sleep-in-it philosophy. Personal responsibility is important, but it should be moderated by an informal counterpart to the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Tim St. Vincent
Wakefield
