Getting your player ready...
Toby Talbot, Associated Press file
This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt.Re: Dec. 6 news story.
Your article on opioids was excellent . As a retired internist and geriatrician, I would like to add three comments. 1. Geriatric patients are often so complex that no single guideline applies to them. Many are in chronic pain. 2: Guidelines are guidelines, not rules. Doctors who adhere strictly to them are taking care of their reputations, not their patients, as their oath requires. 3: One of the unintended consequences of these guidelines is the current heroin epidemic among young people. Heroin is cheaper, easier to get and has no dose guidelines.
John C. Scott, M.D.,Golden
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