Radley Balko: The War Over Prescription Painkillers

Radley Balko: The War Over Prescription Painkillers: Over the last few months, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and several other government agencies have been issuing some alarming reports about abuse of prescription painkillers, and what the government says has been a dramatic rise in overdose deaths. These reports, along with another recent report by the journalism non-profit ProPublica, have spurred calls for tighter policing of painkillers, instituting digital databases to monitor pain patients and their physicians, and more aggressive tactics to prevent drug diversion.