REPORTED IN
February 08, 2026
THE POLITICAL AGENDAS OF UNDER-TREATMENT OF PAIN
…now try this, my dear friends and enemies, the next time you go to your local pharmacy: ask the pharmacists for a copy of your NARXCARE SCORE and watch the look on their faces…
youarewithinthenorms.com
NORMAN J CLEMENT RPH., DDS, NORMAN L. CLEMENT PHARM-TECH, MALACHI F. MACKANDAL PHARMD, IN THE SPIRIT OF WALTER R. CLEMENT MS., MBA., BELINDA BROWN-PARKER, IN THE SPIRIT OF JOSEPH SOLVO ESQ., IN THE SPIRIT OF REV. C.T. VIVIAN, JELANI ZIMBABWE CLEMENT, BS., MBA., IN THE SPIRIT OF WILLIE GUINYARD BS., IN THE SPIRIT OF ERLIN CLEMENT SR., JOSEPH WEBSTER MD., MBA, IN THE SPIRIT OF RICHARD KAUL, MD., BEVERLY C. PRINCE MD., FACS., IN THE SPIRIT OF LEROY BAYLOR, JAY K. JOSHI MD., MBA, ADRIENNE EDMUNDSON, IN THE SPIRIT OF WALTER F. WRENN III, MD., ESTER HYATT PH.D., WALTER L. SMITH BS., IN THE SPIRIT OF BRAHM FISHER ESQ., MICHELE ALEXANDER MD., CUDJOE WILDING BS, MARTIN NDJOU, BS., RPH., IN THE SPIRIT OF DEBRA LYNN SHEPHERD, BERES E. MUSCHETT, STRATEGIC ADVISORS
This article from youarewithinthenorms.com summarizes key points derived from Dr. Richard A. Lawhern’s May 2, 2025, article ‘The Hidden Bias in How We Treat Chronic Pain,’ originaly published on KevinMD. It highlights a widespread anti-opioid bias in the American medical system, which leads to suffering and patients with chronic pain being abandoned.
This text functions as a rebuttal to restrictive prescribing policies and critiques major medical journals for refusing to publish scientific perspectives that defend the efficacy of opioids. Lawhern highlights the legal and professional intimidation facing doctors, asserting that the current overdose crisis is driven by illicit substances rather than legitimate medical care.
This article seeks to restore evidence-based balance to a healthcare system that the author believes has prioritized political agendas over the needs of vulnerable patients.
THE Level of misunderstanding
The treatment of chronic pain is currently a subject of intense medical and political debate, often characterized by what some experts describe as an unscientific bias within U.S. health care agencies and prestigious medical journals. This bias has reportedly led to millions of patients being denied safe and effective pain care, contributing to a crisis where thousands have committed suicide due to unmanaged pain and depression.
The Role of Narcotic Analgesics (Opioids) in Pain Management
Despite the controversy surrounding them, the youarewithinthenorms has highlighted several key points regarding the use of opioids:
• High Efficacy: Clinical experience suggests that opioids are highly effective for treating chronic pain, particularly when underlying comorbidities like depression are also addressed.
• Low Mortality Rates: Research published a decade ago indicated that the annual opioid-associated mortality in clinic populations was approximately 0.25 percent, even among those on high dosages (greater than 100 mg morphine equivalent/day).
• Risk Distribution: Studies of Veterans Administration hospitals show that the risk of overdose or suicide is not evenly distributed; it primarily affects patients with severe psychiatric disease, such as those with multiple inpatient psychiatric admissions or previous suicide attempts.
• Predicting Addiction: There is currently no reliable method for pain management clinicians to predict an individual patient’s risk of developing an addiction. Furthermore, critics argue the DSM-5 scale for defining Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is flawed, as a patient seeking relief for severe, inadequately treated pain could technically qualify as having moderate OUD.
Policy and Regulatory Impacts
The landscape of chronic pain treatment has been heavily influenced by regulatory actions and policy shifts:
• Regulatory Pressure: Many physicians are leaving the field of pain medicine due to fear of sanctions from state medical boards or prosecution by the DEA and Department of Justice.
• The “Pill Mill” Era: Between 1999 and 2011, “pill mills” distributed large quantities of pharmaceutical-grade opioids, contributing to addiction in vulnerable populations.
• Shift to Deadlier Substances: Following the shutdown of these mills through legal action and the expansion of Prescription Drug Monitoring Plans (PDMPs), many individuals with addiction turned to illegal and far more dangerous substances like Mexican heroin and Chinese fentanyl.
• Critics of Current Policy: Some patient advocates argue that politics has replaced science in pain care, with CDC and DEA guidelines being blamed for destroying the quality of life for long-term patients.
Alternative and Emerging Treatments
While the debate often centers on opioids, the presenters list several alternative topics and treatments being explored in the medical community, including:
• Topoisomerase inhibitors for chronic pain.
• Gabapentin alternatives aimed at providing euphoria-free pain relief.
• Integrating the expertise of both pain medicine and addiction medicine to optimize patient outcomes.
• Exploring “new hope” for relief beyond traditional opioid therapy.
How have government agencies and medical journals influenced pain policy?
Government agencies and medical journals have significantly shaped chronic pain policy through what critics describe as unscientific bias and political influence, often prioritizing regulation over clinical efficacy.
Influence of Government Agencies
Government agencies have influenced pain policy through strict regulation and the enforcement of restrictive guidelines.
Climate of Fear: The DEA and Department of Justice have created a ” climate of fear” among physicians through what is described as “ruinous—though frequently unfounded—prosecution.” This has caused many doctors to stop practicing pain medicine to avoid sanctions from state medical boards or federal criminal charges.
• Regulatory Pressure and Prosecution: The DEA and Department of Justice have created a climate of fear among medical professionals through what some describe as “ruinous—though frequently unfounded—prosecution”. This has led thousands of physicians to abandon pain medicine to avoid sanctions from state medical boards.
• Restrictive Guidelines: The CDC and DEA guidelines are cited as having a destructive impact on the lives of long-term pain patients. Critics argue that in U.S. opioid policy, politics has replaced science, leading to the desertion of millions of patients by the medical profession.
• Surveillance and Data Collection: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducts national surveys that some experts argue underreport the extent of doctor-caused (iatrogenic) opioid use disorder. Additionally, the expansion of Prescription Drug Monitoring Plans (PDMPs) to all 50 states was instrumental in shutting down “pill mills”. However, this also forced many individuals with addiction to turn to much deadlier illegal substances like Mexican heroin and Chinese fentanyl.
Influence of Medical Journals
Medical journals influence policy by controlling the narrative and, in some cases, refusing to publish dissenting scientific views:
• Editorial Bias: Prestigious publications like the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) have been accused of being unbalanced and biased. For example, the NEJM published an editorial by authors affiliated with “Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescription” (PROP) but refused to publish a counterpoint based on contradictory science.
• Suppression of Evidence: By refusing to allow evidence-based public arguments, journals like the NEJM are accused of failing their “duty of care” in refining public health policy. This forces researchers to seek out alternative venues, such as the Medical Research Archives of the European Society of Medicine, to publish data supporting the high efficacy of opioids and questioning the reliability of addiction risk predictions.
• Impact on Diagnosis: The sources suggest that medical literature often relies on the DSM-5 scale for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), which is described as “fraught with recognized problems”. Because any patient with inadequately treated severe pain could technically qualify as having moderate OUD, the scale can lead to misleading conclusions about the risks of opioid therapy.
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THE NORMS
references:
1. The Anand-Clement Rule of Artificial Stupidity (AC Rule) posits that any Artificial Intelligence utilizing a flawed algorithm inevitably generates Artificial Stupidity. This rule is primarily discussed in the context of systems like Palantir’s AI, which is widely deployed for predictive justice and fraud detection in law enforcement.
“illusion of scientific certainty”
“illusion of scientific certainty”
A core danger arises because proprietary design and secrecy prevent scrutiny of the core methodology, creating an “illusion of scientific certainty” where complex graphics simulate knowledge but are not traditional evidence. Anand and Clement argue that this mechanized reliance on predictive data replaces legal adjudication with algorithmic fatalism, treating correlation as conviction rather than allowing for human intent.
THE HOLY TRINITY ON TRIAL
