To the editor;
Yet another sad death from opiates that are legal and were legally supplied. What can be done to prevent this from reoccurring on what seems a very regular basis?
There are many other legally available materials that can kill with the most commonly thought of examples being alcohol and tobacco, both of which are fairly easy for any adult to obtain. They, however, usually take longer to kill their users.
There are some attempts to manage their supply by linking medical and pharmaceutical databases to monitor their consumption. If an individual is purchasing too much from probably too many doctors, then their access can be managed and hopefully restricted.
There will always be people who oppose the collection of personal data and the use of linked databases but this time it is a matter of life and death. The monitoring of doctors who over prescribe and pharmacists who don’t manage supply carefully should lead to warnings, fines and if need be, de-registration.
Pain should be managed but that management should not be deadly.
Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia