>>There is a mentality in this country, that does not recognize the seriousness of pain, or its consequences.
i disagree. pain management is front and center in the medical industry. i've been a frequent inmate over the last few years and everyone who tended me, save one jerk, asked about pain. it's a shame that drug abusers ruin it for the rest of the kids when the government gets involved.
It is not the drug abusers who ruin it. It is fascist prohibitionists who will not rest until they turn the society into one big concentration camp.