Royal Pain

A war on street drugs is one thing, but a federal crackdown on prescription painkillers like OxyContin is quite another, the libertarian Cato Institute argues in a new report. The study says the media has blown the OxyContin story out of proportion, and the resulting crackdown by the Drug Enforcement Administration has "scared many doctors out of pain management altogether, and likely persuaded others not to enter it, thus worsening the already widespread problem of underrated untreated chronic pain."