[HiTech RedNeck]

I thought I saw that the number of suicides under the Oregon law was something like 25 per year. Maybe part of the increase in pain reporting is from patients whose doctors are no longer quite as afraid to prescribe mountains of morphine when nothing else will do.

[MarMema]

"A disturbing study published in the November 2004 Journal of Palliative Medicine reported that Oregon patients in the last week of their lives were "twice as likely" between 2000-2002 to be reported to be "in moderate or severe pain" than reported in the years 1996-1997 -- a time mostly prior to Oregon's law going into effect."

Twice is a big jump. Opportunity has opened the door. These people are dying and suddenly in much greater need of help out the door, I mean more pain meds, than before.