Pain in America - and how our government makes it worse!

John P. Flannery, II, is a former federal prosecutor from New York City who prosecuted multimillion dollar heroin conspiracies. He believes, however, that our government is dead wrong to prosecute physicians for treating chronic pain patients. I am ashamed that the Justice Department is doing this, Flannery says. There are 75 million Americans who suffer long term excruciating pain and the government is making it worse . For many pain patients, neither surgery nor alternative procedures ease their pain. Congress authorized the use of controlled substances to treat their chronic pain. But the Justice Department, Flannery argues, opposes prescriptions of these controlled substances. It prosecutes the physicians who treat chronic pain patients. Flannery holds the government accountable for destroying the once sacrosanct relationship of physician and patient, for criminalizing chronic pain treatment, and for creating a public health crisis of under-treated patients. Flannery tells the tragic story of patients and physicians who are the victims in this war against pain medicine, explains the history of privacy and how the government is destroying that right, suggests how we may protect ourselves from the government, and issues a chilling warning to be vigilant in the face of this tyranny lest we lose our rights once and for all.