By JohnDempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky was on WLS Friday morning to discuss President Trump’s new plan to fight the opioid epidemic in the United States. Pinsky told “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” that one reason so many Americans have become hooked on painkillers is because of lawsuits against the medical profession.
“There were well meaning groups out there that were advocating on behalf of pain patients”, said Pinsky, “Then attorneys took to the courts, and started prosecuting physicians for inadequate treatment of pain, and they started winning gigantic settlements and criminal cases against doctors that made inadequate treatment of pain, quote–‘reckless negligence.’ And it scared the hell out of all of us (doctors) and well all stopped treating pain, at least chronic pain, and sent all our pain patients to the pain specialists. The pain specialists then took the position that pain is whatever the patient says it is and pain control is whatever the patient says it is. However much they need to control the pain, that’s what they need.”
On Thursday Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency on Thursday, telling an audience in the East Room of the White House that “we can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic.”
“This epidemic is a national health emergency,” he said. “Nobody has seen anything like what is going on now.”
Trump’s move is different from the broad order the President previewed over the last few months. On Thursday, the President directed acting Health Secretary Eric Hargan to declare a public health emergency under the Public Health Services Act — which directs federal agencies to provide more grant money to combat the epidemic — not a national emergency through the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.
The difference between the two orders is money and scope. If Trump had used the Stafford Act, the federal government would have been able to tap into funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund to combat opioids. A senior administration official, however, said the designation was not the right fit because the FEMA money is meant for natural disasters, not health emergencies.
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
