Thompson: Managing pain by proper opioid prescribing is now in danger

National pain awareness week has just started. It is likely, however, that the ongoing opioid crisis will overshadow awareness of the chronic problem of pain. The war on drugs and the war on pain have become conflated in the ongoing opioid crisis.
The tragedy of hundreds, even thousands, of drug overdose deaths has understandably taken precedence in the news media. Governments have responded to the crisis, but some of the actions taken are highly unlikely to solve the problem of overdoses and ne